You okay with that Tom?
Barnett - Dateline: SWA 2114 from BWI to PVD, 7 December 2005
Second day at Highlands. Morning of more fascinating presentations/panels (like Amory Lovins on energy and Dan Esty of Yale on global environmental issues), and then an afternoon of doing scenario planning with the grand master himself, Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network.
Neat treat in the morning: one of my favorite nationally-syndicated columnists, just back from several days in Iraq with the boss of Central Command, is chairing this panel discussion on the press. Before he launches into his general comments, he speaks directly about PNM. What he says basically drops my jaw to the table (and I paraphrase here): Tom, if you had any doubt that your ideas are having impact, let me tell you that I saw plenty of evidence during my time at the command that they are.
I won't offer any more details than that, because that would truly constitute telling tales out of school, but it was an awfully gratifying thing to have confirmed independently by someone of that caliber who's got no interest in BS'ing me and certainly didn't need to go out of his way like that at such a prestigious forum to compliment the work (hell, I wasn't expecting the time of day from him, and I just don't approach famous people in crowds). I hear this sort of stuff through back channels all the time, usually from younger officers, but this was serious confirmation from someone outside of my tribe, something even I couldn't blow off (and let me tell you, I tend to blow it all off as a rule, simply because I know my place in the food chain, and I'm more than okay with that).
In the afternoon scenario session, I was assigned to the group instructed to flesh out the "official future," which Highlands designated as "shrink the Gap." Naturally, I liked that one. But what I liked more about the 4-hour session, was sitting around with a bunch of brilliant minds and listening to them—with me chiming in now and then—describing how they think shrinking the Gap would logically unfold. It was like having this blind, focus group to test out all your ideas.
About two hours in, Peter Schwartz asks me, "You okay with that Tom?" (meaning the discussion of the scenario), and I was thinking inside, "Are you kidding, I'm in heaven!"
All I will say is, Esquire just got one helluva article and G.P. Putnam's getting one helluva second book.
On the C-SPAN front, doubt has once again entered into the equation. Got word from show producer that C-SPAN management is now questioning whether it's right to broadcast the brief on the 9th (this Thursday) when they haven't had time to publicize it more. Looking it at from their perspective, it's a big deal for them to re-broadcast basically the same material (retaped, even). They originally viewed me as an author (so fine, you get Booknotes), and they stretched the definition to include the brief (Brian Lamb's personal call), but they really went through some internal debates about whether it broke any of their cardinal rules to bring the brief back again (How to justify this? As author? As public speaker? What?). So, having gone through all this decision-making, this particular program has become somewhat unique in their minds (don't even get them started on the fact that they made an exception to their cardinal rule about never taping a talk unless they can also tape the subsequent Q&A—a rule they broke this time and this time only, I am told). So some in the management are resisting the idea of—now that it's clear the House will be done with the Intell Bill on time—broadcasting the brief with only about 36 hours to promote it (Honestly, has anyone ever seen a C-SPAN commercial or ad anywhere? What are these guys talking about?).
So here's the upshot: tomorrow morning C-SPAN will decide whether to go as planned on Thursday the 9th or whether to drop it back several days (maybe a week exactly). Would I be disappointed? Hard to complain when someone wants to make more of a PR effort (No, no, show it at 2am and don't tell anyone about it!). But the rule in TV, as I have come to know it, is never delay unless forced. Something can always come up in the meantime and then where are you? Not on TV!
The suspense is killing me. Who knew C-SPAN would be so full of intrigue? |
