Monday, October 19, 2009

No Star General

Looking back on the season, we've had our chances, and missed the ones that would have put us into the playoffs by now. Say what you want about the last half of the season, but the battle begins in camp, not when the army takes the field. A good general does his homework, remembers the past, pays attention to the scouting reports, and prepares his troops for the coming conflict. Now it's true that on any given Sunday or Wednesday or any other day of the week, a team may be victorious without a clearly defined strategy, but I would be willing to bet the win column heavily favors the prepared. Fortune may favor the bold, but the unprepared usually end up bloody. I do not question the talent nor the potential of Jason Kries. What I question is promoting the soldier to general and bypassing the ranks of experience that one gathers along the way. In my own experience I have grown into the role that I was originally given, but my staff was much smaller at the time, in fact it was just me. As the workload increased, the employees necessary to manage that load also increased to a now larger, but not quite huge, staff. Along the way I have made my share of mistakes and learned the proper way to handle various situations in the corporate jungle, but as I made those mistakes, the company did not crumble because I wasn't given the reigns of the company when I walked in the door.

There's a reason why almost every corporation and military system depends on experience to move employees and soldiers through the ranks. Can you imagine the outcome if a Lieutenant fresh out of West Point was given the reigns for the D-Day Invasion because he was "bold" and showed tremendous initiative? Am I suggesting that soccer games are as important as liberating Europe...absolutely not. When someone gets their pilots license are they handed the yolk to an Airbus (is that more palatable)?

What did we expect? What was Dave expecting? Again, I don't question his potential, but Dave dropped Jason behind enemy lines without a weapon, a compass, or a map, and sadly for us fans, it may be years before he "secures the bridge".