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UNDERSTANDING TRUMP

          OK, so many of you are saying,” I don’t want to understand Trump.” Well I fully understand your position. BUT, by understanding President Trump’s approach to problem solving it might make the current political arena more palatable. To understand the President’s actions you have to recognize the environment as he envisions it.

          Many of President Trump’s actions appear to be disorganized, poorly thought out, and impulsive. This is only partially true and in fact it may be that way purposefully. Let’s look at some facts that appear counter-intuitive:

1.    The greatest majority of decisions that a leader, supervisor, manager etc. have to make are decisions where 90% (figurative) of the facts are already known by the individual through daily observations. Holding conferences and forming research teams to lead a committee to make a decision is fruitless. It will rarely yield a better outcome and will absorb an excess of time. Yes, it will make everyone feel like they were a part of the decision but, as can be witnessed by looking at the efforts toward congeniality in Congress, nothing gets accomplished. Perhaps more disastrous is that in the field of foreign affairs it provides others the opportunity to develop and implement strategies to nullify your efforts.

2.    Secondly, as seen in the movie “Jurassic Park” where the scientist is constantly talking about randomness, Stuff happens.  It is generally referred to a Chaos Theory. While you could spend a lifetime studying it; the general theme is that you can’t predict the myriad of disturbances that may alter the effectiveness of a well planned decision. Any pebble in the ocean of productivity can cause ripples altering the optimum outcome.

This brings us to President Trump. Here is a man who has reached the pinnacle of success. At this point he has no reason to humbly try and garner support in hopes of gaining miniscule progress. Additionally he recognizes that, in accordance with Chaos theory, stuff will happen and the best he can do is to force it to come to a head where everyone has to be seeking solutions. It’s in this chaos that he is most comfortable as he knows stuff happens and is willing to face it as it occurs rather than trying to devise methods to avoid the inevitable.

Meet with Putin, Fire staff members, Meet with Kim, Meet with the Ayatollah, level tariffs, none of these are aimed at specific outcomes merely at outcomes. Nothing bad has occurred from them that wasn’t going to occur anyway. On the other hand each of these, and many more, actions have stimulated discourse and resulted in world changing events.  All within the chaotic environment being constantly stirred by the administration to gain an advantage.

Like or dislike “Chaos management” you have to accept that it generates action. Most modern managers are raised up through the liberal education system to avoid conflict. This makes President Trump’s administration appear as an abomination and a violation of all the values they cherish. However, the very successes being seen will stimulate a new generation of managers who have gained an insight into the inevitability of Chaos in a productive environment and are willing to, as my father used to say, “Prod the bull”.

Oh well “Grumpy” planted a seed; let’s see if it develops.