Seeking 'great truths'

The world’s largest bank, J.P. Morgan, is going through a shakeup this month because a $13 million a year investment executive’s team made a dumb business transaction which lost her corporation $2 billion.

She promptly admitted there was a mistake and resigned. Her much higher paid CEO then had to face the corporation stockholders at the annual meeting and discuss the situation. His demeanor is described by the Associated Press as “subdued” as he explained how more executives would be released, but things at the bank were actually going quite well.

He also reassured the upset stock owners that J.P. Morgan was trying to work within the new federal regs. (Those call for stricter management of mega-banks which triggered the crash of 2008.) Whatever the CEO’s demeanor, a vote was soon taken on whether he should be fired. Surprising to those of us who weren’t at the meeting, he kept his job by a 60 to 40 percent margin.

That incident sent me scrambling for a past column which elucidates such events.

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It seems a shame so much of the world’s great quotes of wisdom are cited by the word “anon” or “author unknown.” When one human being comes up with the perfect way of expressing a fundamental truth, it seems a shame if his or her name is not given. That would remind each of us that a specific person had a brilliant moment of insight. Such “source knowledge” inspires the rest of us to reach for verbal articulation.

In the parachute loft of the Missoula Forest Service Smokejumpers was a sign, “When you get to feeling indispensable around here, spend a few hours in a cemetery.” That sign helped keep many cocky young men in line, but I often wondered whether such profound words were handed down from a noted philosopher or just some average Joe like you or me.

In the past, I worked for the then largest corporation on earth, General Motors, as well as a large conglomerate, and on several occasions the U.S. government. I left each of those jobs because of frustration over the inability of an individual to get things done in an expeditious manner. While my best attribute is not great patience, my sense of humor kept me from going completely bonkers. I just couldn’t fathom how the federal and private bureaucracies functioned.

Then, Eureka. The following explanation was widely circulated, and on first reading I immediately, clearly, understood how gigantic private and government organizations work:

Six phases of a project

1. Enthusiasm

2. Disillusionment

3. Panic

4. Search for the guilty

5. Punishment of the innocent

6. Praise and honors for the non-participants

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It seems only fair that a person who brilliantly reduces mega-group methodology to a level each of us can grasp should be recognized and honored.

Please, if you find a great truth, write it down and sign it. There are always confused folk like those at J.P. Morgan, in Congress and the Department of Agriculture who need meaningful words of guidance.

G. George Ostrom is a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist. He lives in Kalispell.