March 1, 2025

Tom Peters, a famous writer on business and management, wrote, “If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.”

Well, based on my level of confusion, I can confidently report that the good news is that I am paying attention. I have never been more dazed and confused. I think that is what this administration wants. Every day brings a new initiative, or a reversal of a previous one. The management approach is to throw policies, memos, and guidance for everything that was promised in the campaign, like you would throw spaghetti at a wall., just to see what sticks. And if what you throw out is too crazy, peel it off the wall.

I like that metaphor. During my last two years in college, I lived in a run-down house with 5 friends, and we each had a day of the week where we would cook for the rest of the group. I learned a lot about cooking in those years, as I could focus on just one meal a week to cook for a crowd. Being cash-strapped college students, there was a lot of pasta, and yes, we checked its readiness by throwing it on the wall. And we never removed a single piece. After two years, we had turned a bland kitchen wall into a beautiful piece of spaghetti art. There were layers, there were different colors, and there was texture. It was hilarious. I think we lost our deposit in part because of that spaghetti wall.

In real life and in leadership, my belief is that nothing sticks unless you focus on one or two key initiatives and stick with them for a long time. Ths spaghetti wall approach, though hilarious (and effective) in college, doesn’t translate well to organizational change. 

So, what am I confused about? I’ll just look at two issues, but there are dozens worth examining.

Russia and Ukraine. Are we really on Russia’s side now? Ronald Reagan’s 1987, “Tear down this wall” comment now seems to be more like “Putin – we won’t stop you if you want to rebuild that wall.” Three years ago, I wrote about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I wrote that I never thought I would see a land war in Europe in my lifetime, and yet, it happened. I wrote about the heroic actions of Ukrainians and their president. And now the President is saying that Ukraine started the war, and that Zelensky is a dictator. And then he said that he didn’t say that? And yesterday there was a yelling match in the White House? Even writers from the Wall Street Journal oppose this move by our President. A recent op-ed stated,

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited Europe with the same aim that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had when he visited Munich in 1938: appeasement. Representing the “art of the deal” administration, Mr. Hegseth offered Russian President Vladimir Putin much of what he wanted before negotiations had even begun: no return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders, no North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership for Ukraine, and no direct American troop participation in security guarantees for Ukraine.“

I thought we already won the Cold War.  The wall came down over 35 years ago. Former eastern bloc nations are independent, and many have been established democracies for over a quarter of a century. Now our President is parroting Putin’s words, and everything seems unstable. I am sad and confused. Is this spaghetti really going to stick?

Eliminating Deficit Spending

I was born in 1962. In my lifetime, the only two presidents who had a balanced budget were Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. I’m all for moving towards that again. Out of every tax dollar we pay, 39 cents now goes to paying for interest on the national debt. We are like first time credit card users, maxing out our cards and being stuck in the land of minimum payments. Actually, the data shows that half of Americans do just that, so our nation reflects its citizens. Alexander Hamilton rapped about the benefits of a national debt in the amazing Hamilton musical. But I don’t think he imagined this much debt. So yes, I am all for a balanced budget.

But the way to get there it is not to mimic college kids throwing spaghetti on a wall. The random firings and reversals of those firings of government employees may save a bit of money. But it’s clear that there is no plan. The process should be thoughtful and strategic, not spaghetti-esque. As Jackson Brown sings, “There are lives in the balance.” There are now thousands of people (the true numbers are unknown), many of whom voted for this President, who are out of a job, and it’s hard to explain the reasoning behind it. These organizations have jobs to do. I led efforts to release or lay off many employees during my three decades of educational administration. Some were based on the employee’s lack of effectiveness, and some were based on needing to balance a budget. I did my best to make sure each of those impacted employees understood what was behind the decision, and to be strategic in my actions so the organization would be able to continue to educate children as well as possible.

One time, when I was a high school principal, my district made what I believed was a truly random, poorly thought out, and last-minute decision to lay off employees in my school and others. I wrote a blistering letter and faxed it off to district leaders, saying the reductions were fiscally unnecessary and would hurt the school and our students. One of the fax recipients called me immediately, and he was furious. He began the phone call yelling, “Some ass**** just sent me a letter questioning my decision about these layoffs. And that ass**** had the audacity to put YOUR NAME ON THE BOTTOM OF THE LETTER.” Damn, it’s still funny. But boy was he mad. In the end, none of those layoffs happened. They were unnecessary and they would have hurt students. I am grateful that in spite of the initial yelling match, our district leaders did the right thing. Decisions need to be thoughtful and strategic.

What’s happening now with government firings is far worse. It’s confusing. It’s destroying lives, and who knows what impact it is going to have on the good that these organizations are trying to do? In some cases, whatever money is saved through the terminations of these employees will be far outweighed by the costs of the work those employees will not be doing. I’ll say it again, I agree that our budget is out of balance and we need to make reductions. But Congress should be involved, the process should be thoughtful, and the result should not resemble a college kid’s spaghetti wall. Great leaders don’t create confusion. Great leaders lead with conviction and clarity. 

Back to Tom Peters – I am paying attention, and I am indeed confused. Spaghetti, anyone?

Post #128 on www.drmdmatthews.com

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Notes

I add these notes sections for a number of reasons:

• First and foremost, many of you are crazy enough to read them.
• My posts are long enough, so believe it or not, I do try to limit them. Ideas that don’t make the cut can end up in the notes section.
• I include additional resources, links, stories, for those of you who want to go a little deeper.
• I may include something from the comments made in my last post, or something I learned in the process of writing this one.
• And remember, the posts are long enough – no one is making you read the notes. (Dad – If you are going to critique me for how long my posts are, please stop reading now. This is the optional part!)

My March 3, 2022 post on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine can be found here.

I lived in West Berlin for one year, arriving just after Reagan’s first Presidential visit to the city. West Berlin, located on the eastern side of communist East Germany, was surrounded by a wall that kept East Germans from escaping. The difference that I experienced between an amazing and vibrant West Berlin, and a cold, gray, and silent East Berlin, was stunning. In 1982, Reagan powerfully spoke as he stood in front of the wall, stating, that we “stand on freedom’s edge and in the shadow of a wall that has come to symbolize all that is darkest in the world today.” We do not want that darkness advancing. Here is the full text of his speech.

There have been several articles from the Wall Street Journal. For the most part, the Journal is waiting to see if these move will truly advance conservative values like reducing the deficit. But several op-eds, including Trump Betrays Ukraine and American Values, written by William Galston and published on February 25 , are highly concerned.

I don’t miss fax machines one bit. Although I did apply one for one job at the very last minute using a fax machine, and I ended up getting that job. So, maybe they had their good points.

Photo from Reagan speaking in front of the Berlin Wall is from the National Archives Catalog.

Spaghetti picture created by ChatGPT.