Analysts Are Quitting the State Department’s Anti-Propaganda Team
The Global Engagement Center is struggling to keep up with its missions: countering ISIS recruitment and Russian disinformation.
The chief technology officer at the U.S. State Department’s anti-propaganda center left last week, along with two other members of its analytics team, Defense One has learned. The departures raise new questions about the Global Engagement Center , the two-year-old office that remains leaderless nine months into the Trump administration.
The State Department would not say how many data analysts remain at the Center, but one former senior official described the three team members as “the whole enchilada” and added “things are bad.”
The Center’s CTO Nash Borges departed on Friday, leaving behind a goodbye email. “Today is my last day and in sticking with recent [science and technology] efforts to share important ideas to keep the GEC marching forward to accomplish its important mission, I thought that I would begin with a review of bureaucratic politics theory,” Borges wrote. ( Defense One obtained a copy of the email.) “What follow are excerpts from A Glossary of Political Economy Terms by Dr. Paul M. Johnson of Auburn University. Any familiarities that you observe are purely coincidental ;).”
In his email, Borges does not explicitly say why he quit. (Nor did he respond to requests for comments on the record.) But he cheekily quotes Johnson’s writing on bureaucracy and “ bureaucratic politics ” at considerable length, and suggests that GEC managers read a book subtitled “What the world’s greatest managers do differently.”
https:// www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/09/analysts-are-quitting-state-departments-anti-propaganda-team/140936/
>What the world’s greatest managers do differently.”
"FIRST BREAK ALL THE RULES"
Here's the PDF of the book listed in this article
https://businessnowllc.com/downloads/%5BBuckingham%20and%20Coffman,%201999%5D%20First,%20Break%20All%20The%20Rules%20-%20What%20The%20World's%20Greatest%20Managers%20Do%20Differently.pdf
First page of the book, First Break All The Rules,
"Outofhundredsofbooks aboutimproving organizational performance,
here isone that isbasedon extensive empirical evidence and a bookthat
focuses on specific actions managers can take to make their organiza
tions better today! In a world in which managing people provides the
differentiating advantage, First, Break All the Rules is a must-read."
—Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor, Stanford Business School and author of
The Human Equation: Building Profits byPutting People First
"This bookchallenges basic beliefs of greatmanagement withpowerful
evidence and a compelling argument. First, Break All the Rules is essen
tialreading."
—Bradbury H. Anderson, President and COO, Best Buy
"This is it! With compelling insight backed by powerful Gallup data,
Buckingham and Coffman have built the unshakable foundation of ef
fective management. For the first time,a clearpathway hasbeen identi
fied for creating engaged employees and high-performance work units.
It has changed the way I approach developing managers. First, Break
All the Rules is a critical resource for every front-line supervisor, middle
manager, and institutionalleader."
—Michael W. Morrison, Dean, University of Toyota
"First, Break All the Rules is nothing short of revolutionary in its con
cepts and ideas. It explains why so many traditional notions and prac
tices are counterproductive in business today. Equally important, the
bookpresents a simpler, truer modelcomplete withspecific actions that
have allowed our organization to achieve significant improvements in
productivity, employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and profit."
—Kevin Cuthbert, Vice President, Human Resources, Swissotel
"Finally, somethingdefinitive about what makes for a great workplace."
—Harriet Johnson Brackey, Miami Herald
I would say not. Looks like there is no one left in the department to organize and use funds.
But what if the people that were originally hired, took all the information with them, got a Soros or Koch benefactor or even a Chinese or Russian benefactor to ramp up operations again and start working the solution directly with Twat, FB, Google YT etc etc.
That book The Center’s CTO Nash Borges recommended before he left his position was called "First Break All The Rules" after all.
So what rules did this guy and his people break?