No storm. No work, either. What gives?

The region was bracing for a hurricane as we headed into mid-week. But by Thursday, it was pretty clear we wouldn't get clobbered. Still, a few businesses closed their doors at noon on Friday, sent staff home with pay, and the staff is thrilled, of course. It's become another expectation and entitlement: Nasty forecast = no work.

But yesterday there was no storm, really. We have had thunderstorms worse than this.

Same thing happens every single time snow is forecast. Schools close before there is a flake. At least twice last year, there was no school -- and no snow.

Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't be prepared for bad weather, or that we should put business (or education) above personal safety. But we live in New England, for Pete's sake. We get four full seasons, and we get bad storms -- rain and wind in the fall and spring, snow in the winter. It can get very hot in summer. Go figure.

Here's what I think: When bad weather threatens, have a plan in place to send staff home or close. When it's a coin toss, it may be best to be safe. But when it looks as if there's more hype than weather, let's just go about our lives. We can live with rain, and even (gasp) a dusting of snow without going into a state of emergency.

'Blocking Facebook won't stop stupidity' -- right on

One of my favorite blogs is Paul Levy's "Running a Hospital." How the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston finds the time to create thoughtful, compelling and sometimes just amusing blog posts regularly is a mystery. I'm envious -- not of his job (he can have it, $1M paycheck and all) but of his blogability. (Sarah Palin's not the only one who can create new words around here.)

Anyway, I found this post especially interesting. Most hospitals block Facebook and other social media apps from their systems. A few more forward-thinking ones (like the one I work at) make a concession for us folks in communications. But, I've been wondering, what if we expected people to act like adults and professionals instead?

Paul Levy takes a stab at that in this post...
Running a hospital: Blocking Facebook won't stop stupidity: "A couple of people have asked me to address the recent story in California about some hospital employees who took pictures of a dying patien..."

Coming clean about "wayfinding"

"When do you want to pick these up," the usually pleasant lady at the dry cleaner's asked, pointing to the five shirts -- the usual: two blue, two white, one striped -- I had laid in a pile before her Saturday morning.

"Oh, Tuesday will be fine."

"You know we're closed all next week, right?" Just a hint of recrimination in her voice.

I shrugged.

"Well, we've had signs up for the past month. All next week -- closed."

Right she was. Signs everywhere. One each on the counter, the front door, and at the cash register, too. I had actually noticed this, and made a mental note of it a few weeks back.

I suppressed my first two reactions, which were:

-- "I'm sorry, but for some reason your vacation schedule hasn't made its way to my Outlook calendar." And

-- "I'm not so sure it's wise for a service-related business to close for a week. Not in this economy, and not when there's another dry cleaner a quarter mile away."

Instead, I just said, "Well, I guess the following Tuesday, then."

She smiled, probably thankful I was one of the customers who chose not to engage in a debate about this. And I actually wished her a happy week off.

But it got me to thinking.

We put signs up everywhere at the hospital, on every vertical and horizontal surface. This way to registration. Register here first (except during these hours). This area will be closed for renovation. Hours of operation. Other locations.

And we're amazed that people don't notice these notices -- communicated on posters, in stanchions, on walls, elevators, hanging from the ceiling, posted on countertops, in plastic stands, taped to windows.

So we put up more -- and make them bigger, more colorful. We add arrows and artwork, affix them to soffits.

There's sign pollution. Like the dry cleaner's, the sign is not the most important thing on your mind when you're going about your busy day. And, at least there's no anxiety involved when dropping off shirts and pants. You can't say the same about registering for a CT scan.

The dry cleaner did an adequate job of communicating its message, but I was not getting it. They could have done my thinking for me -- by giving out a sticky dot to put on a calendar saying "We're closed the week of XYZ, and their name and phone number." Or handing out a bright red reminder with the same message with pick-up receipts for a few weeks before.

Even then, I may have been oblivious. And the service recovery would be simple: Be as kind and understanding as possible.

How can we help do the thinking for our "lost souls" -- the patients, family members and other visitors who need to get from Point A to B (and sometimes a lot farther down the alphabet)? And, inevitably, when some of our guests still get confused, how can we be sure our service recovery gets them headed in the right direction -- with a positive view?

The opinion page

'Seriously, whatever works at this point ...'

OK, I would've fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, too. In a heartbeat.

But what's far more interesting than the punditry (or today's Wall Street Journal editorial -- what do they do there, sit around and think of what the President must do then say that's wrong?) are the comments on the news websites.

Among the more noteworthy:

• The Rolling Stone reporter should have "reminded" McChrystal he was on the record. Oh...
  
  
• Obama's "body language" at the press conference was "mean." (Did this writer ever catch a glimpse of Dick Cheney?)
  

But, I think there's some reason out there. This, from Slate.com, by David Colburne (wish I'd have written most of this):

I'm not a big Obama fan by any stretch of the imagine, but I have to admit, this was a really shrewd move on his part. This successfully accomplished three things:

1. It communicated to Karzai that we really don't give a damn what he thinks. He went to bat for McChrystal and we ignored him. Good. Now he needs to deal with someone that's used to politicking with local leaders (or buying them off - seriously, whatever works at this point) instead of someone trying to force a top-down approach on Afghanistan. COIN just says you need to build a stable government; it doesn't say it has to be run exclusively from Kabul.

2. It puts the advocates of COIN on notice. This is their last shot. They have the one who literally wrote the book on COIN in charge - if Petraeus doesn't turn it around, nobody could.

3. If Petraeus doesn't turn it around, nobody could, which means that, if he doesn't, Obama can safely walk away while saying we gave it our best shot. That's powerful political cover right there.

Honestly, I really hope Petraeus finds some way to pull this off, whatever this is, exactly. Iraq, for all its present faults, is in much better condition now than it was before Petraeus took over, and that's given us the political cover we need to "declare victory" and start pulling out from there. If he can get Afghanistan to "good enough" in a fairly short time, I can live with that. Though I don't think we should be in Afghanistan at all, I'd rather see us leave on terms that everybody can agree with than deal with another few decades of Vietnam-style "what if", with one side reflexively deriding anything military-related and the other side declaring that we need to "double down" on every little skirmish our troops get into.

Having said that, McChrystal was a classic Patton-style general. He had a flair for the dramatic, only followed the rules when it was convenient to do so, was much more comfortable in the field than he was in socially high status situations, never knew when to shut up, and was known for "getting stuff done". Such generals are fantastic on the field, but miserable failures when you need political acumen along with a solid understanding of strategic and tactical skill. Unfortunately, leading a theater is less about strategy and more about politics - you have to balance the needs of your generals, your allies, the civilian leadership on the ground, and Washington, and hope and pray that you can craft something that everyone can agree or tolerate. You can't do that if you openly disdain your allies, the local civilian leadership and Washington. You also can't do it if you view policy and procedure as an impediment instead of as a tool.

They that go down to the sea in ships

I tell ya, it's getting to the point where a guy can't take an afternoon off with his boat to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

BP Spills Coffee