The Incongruous Sec. 'Low-Tech' Gates
By Bob Brewin | Friday, June 22, 2007 | 05:27 PM
By Bob Brewin | Friday, June 22, 2007 | 05:27 PM
A disturbing, yet a mostly unnoticed, quote by Defense Secretary Robert Gates appeared at the bottom of an Associated Press article about 1,500 Pentagon PCs being taken offline because of cyberattacks. The AP reports, "When asked if his own e-mail account was affected, Gates revealed, 'I don't do e-mail. I'm a very low-tech person.'" (The comment didn't go unnoticed by my colleague, Tom Shoop, who wrote about the odd statement in FedBlog.)
This quote should disturb anyone, not to mention government executives, who are interested in government improving the way it operates. Information technology has progressed to the point that it is intimately intertwined in any organization's business processes and, therefore, strategic goals. It now can help drive an organization's strategy and, sometimes, even determine it, as it has done at Defense. For more than a decade, the Defense Department has spent hundreds of billions of dollars pursuing what it calls network-centric warfare, the idea that information, analyzed and supplied by an intricate set of integrated networks, will drive war strategy and help commanders formulate real-time tactics on the battlefield. That's why Gate's comment is so out of step with what the department that he oversees is doing day in and day out -- and on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Wired blogger Noah Scachtman found the comment screwy and not as serious.)
Is this a generational thing? Or is it a simple misunderstanding that IT is so much more than the email program residing on your PC?
It doesn't really matter, however. Any executive, especially one in charge of Defense, should understand that IT, properly aligned with an agency's business processes, can improve, and even help determine, how an agency will meet its mission. That means you need to understand IT and not be so boastful as to describe yourself as being "low-tech." Discussions of what IT can accomplish, what IT can contribute to an organization's strategic goals and business processes, deserve to be held in an agency's executive meetings. The unfortunate reality, however, is that many executives and leaders in government don't hold those discussions, and agencies' abilities to better manage IT suffer.
Comments
Email is convenient, instantaneous, accessible 24-hours, practically unlimited in the number of simultaneous recipients world-wide, secure (with rare exception, cost-saving, time-saving, provides a permanent record without massive storage costs, and can be compiled within seconds from the privacy of one's office or, with the appropriate device, remotely, from anywhere in the world.
For those concerned about content, the one caviat is to use it as it is intended, as an easy, quick, efficient tool for general comunications, and not one for conspiratorial, secretive and nefarious schemes.
IT Spec | Tuesday, June 26, 2007 | 11:14 AMSchedule C, my point wasn't whether Sec. Gates uses email or not. My point is that he described himself as being "low-tech." It is odd, and disconcerting, as I stated in the post, for the head of one of the most technology-driven organizations in the world -- one which has staked its future, and more important soldiers' lives, on technology -- to be boasting he is low tech. The attitude of discounting information technology typcially leads heads of organizations to discount the advantages that technology can offer when forming the strategies and operations of the organzation. The research from almost every respected IT management group -- Gartner, Forrester, Aberdeen, and others -- come to the same conclusion. MBA and technology programs at leading universities teach the importance of using IT as a strategic enabler. Including IT decisions in executive strategic decision making was one of the main goals of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996. It's not about email. It's about using IT to strategically manage in the 21st Century. To think otherwise requires one to suspend belief in the deep and broad scholarly reasearch that shows organizaitons that do so thrive, and those that do not have a leadership void that keeps the organization from optimizing its performance. For Defense, the consequences of not doing so can be dire.
Allan Holmes | Tuesday, June 26, 2007 | 08:59 AMHaving worked at the Pentagon I know that DoD Senior leaders at this level don't read or send e-mails, they have exec officers for that. Their calendars and communications are hand massaged by their staffs and the smart ones that do use e-mail don't say much in them because they have learned that Senators like McCain will subpoena them later.
Recently I had a boss who didn't use e-mail either, whose calendar was booked full most days, and who was not readily available to discuss the day's issues. The result was he was out of the loop most of the time, he didn't know the pressing issues of the day, and he was rarely involved in decisions unless it was a very critical issue. No way to run a trillon dollar operation in my opinion.
When used properly (which is rare) e-mail can be an invaluable communication tool, especially if you are running a large diverse organization with many divisions. I suspect (actually know) that the leaders of the differing arms of DoD (i.e. Army, AF, Navy, etc.) probably only clue in the Secretary when there are serious political implications, or they want money. Same for his own (OSD) staff.
Its not that e-mail will cure DoD, but its a shame that this useful tool is not being used by someone who needs to know what its many branches are up too....
rrwesty | Monday, June 25, 2007 | 11:42 PMWhen Govexec tries to devine reasons for actions of senior government officials, you often go wrong. You have completely missed the real issue at GSA (its a power struggle between a heavy handed and thuggish IG and the Administrator!) and now you seem to have critized Secretary Gates for not using email. Any federal employee could have told you about the GSA struggle and any federal employee would tell you that senior agency people in the government can no longer afford the risks of using emial. Just look at all the investigations on-going right now that all have as their source email traffic. Who wants that? better to never use email at all than to get caught up in the witch hunts. I can quite confidently predict that the next President will absolutely forbid his senior advisors and Cabinet chiefs to ever use email. This would have been an interesting issue for you to comment on, but instead you, quite incorrectly just assumed that Gates is stupid. Hardly, he is just ahead of the curve. Had you asked anyone in the senior service, they would have told you that and you might not have jumped to another wrong conclusion so quickly.....
Schedule C | Monday, June 25, 2007 | 02:57 PMUsing email does not make one high tech or low tech. Email is simply another communications tool, similar to a phone or a briefing.
I suspect that Mr. Gates is not authorized to discus what he knows regarding an embarrassing situation, so he is (smartly) saying (distracting?) words that allow the topic to fade away.
To criticize his remark without allowing for this possibilty, is disingenuous at best.
US Citizen | Monday, June 25, 2007 | 10:45 AMHe should read "The World Is Flat" or any of dozens of contemporary business writings. Anyone who is non tec is just out-of-the-loop and only occupying a space on an org chart.
Five years ago we had a serial killer running wild in the DC area. His capture was delayed because the FBI did not have a modern data base to analyse the reports of witnesses.
Wise Old Owl | Monday, June 25, 2007 | 08:50 AMABOUT THIS BLOG
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