PA Program

Leading Forward, Reaching Back

I am part of the Planning Associates for 2011. Each year the Corps selects between ten and thirteen journeyman planners from around the country, and sends them around the country for a full year to learn about the way the Corps plans its projects.

The most obvious part of the learning process is the knowledge part. We will be going to the places where Corps centers of expertise have developed, and we will be learning from those experts. Flood risk management. Deep draft navigation. Ecosystem restoration. Small boat harbors. Thirteen different courses, thirteen different places, and a year-long project intended to reinforce the lessons learned.

Beyond the specific topics being learned, however, the program will be keyed on developing an understanding of the way Corps planning and leadership works.

And this part is subtle. It is not just the tools of leadership we will be learning. I can grab leadership principles from any business self-help book, or I could attend any intro MBA class for that. This is different, because it provides those details and an opportunity to practice them in a Corps setting, with Corps people and Corps principles.

It is context.

There are some things with the Corps that are very obviously broken. There is something fundamentally flawed when we look at the number of projects that are started and look again at the number of projects that get a final report. We are spending a lot of money and not getting projects authorized.

The purpose of the blog is to see what works. To see what doesn't. And to figure out what I can do, as part of a team, to strip away the things that don't and focus on the pieces that do.

And maybe, just maybe, make a change in the organization.