An Ounce of What?

There is an issue that has been roiling in my mind for years but has now been elevated by the performance, or lack thereof, of the Long Island Power Authority, LIPA. A lack of performance that spits in the eye of the wisdom contained in the truism "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

This will be my last post involving Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath. I would have avoided this one had my concern not had a more pervasive presence in society.

LIPA was caught totally unprepared for a storm that was predicted to land our way over a week before it finally arrived. Since it was just one year since the last hurricane, one would think that intelligent people would be better prepared. I guess not.

When I learned business management I was taught that procedures were used to handle forecasted demand. Contingency plans were devised so as to be implemented to respond to unexpected increases in demand. Crisis/emergency plans were framed to offer structure, communication, and guidance in the rare cases where things may get unpredictably dangerous and we might need to respond with more flexibility.

So when a LIPA exec says, "We could have done a better job communicating." Interpret - We are lousy managers who ignored the risks to our customers and had no crisis plan ready.

When a LIPA exec says, "We were unprepared for the thousands of extra repair crews who came from all over the country all at once." Interpret - we stink at structuring our resources, human especially.

When a LIPA exec says nothing of merit while disastrous winds, floods, and downed trees threaten life and property interpret that to be an admission of guilt. They had nothing to say because they had no plan ready to deal with a hurricane. That they were so out of touch from what they get paid for that having them summarily dismissed wouldn't even be noticed, let alone cause disruptions to our power availability.

Since a parade of politicians has lined up to attend to LIPA's failing I am going to leave that to them. But this all raises my awareness of the subtle human weakness that can compound fast enough to bring down an economy. It is our tendency to seek short-term results and ignore long-term progress. "Forget the cancer, I've got a pimple on my nose!"

In the LIPA case it probably boiled down to unqualified political appointees trying not to be responsible for anything so they could avoid anticipating risks and implement intelligent, structured, and manageable improvements to the grid. This is not unlike the Countrywide Financial case where the attitude was to write crummy loans, package and sell the risks to someone else, and then drive my Porsche to the airport for my vacation in Hawaii. The factor they have in common is the attitude that all I need care about is getting my money and not be responsible for my work.

Like the bridge in Minneapolis that collapsed a few years ago. Critical maintenance was ignored because dealing with it meant increasing taxes. No politician today wants to suggest any increase in taxes (short-term) even if the taxes will pay to make sure an inner-city bridge doesn't fall (long-term.) It seems all we get from today's leaders is a lot of activity to make sure we blame someone else.

The truth is, very few people mind paying for what they get. If we need to spend to keep a bridge from falling we'll pay for that. If we need to pay more for burying power cables to protect them from hurricanes, we'll pay for that. What we hate paying for is unqualified political appointees pointing fingers at others so the can protect their vacations to Hawaii.