Michigan’s Governor, or newly hired CEO, Rick Snyder State of the State Speech on the Snyder Administration Agenda appeared to be difficult for most people to understand. This is primarily because using a PowerPoint based talk, Rick Snyder outlined the basics of how 1) the Snyder Administration policies and performance will be measured, 2) What focus areas in policy he will implement first, and 3) What the Snyder Team’s inaugural tasks and objectives will be.
This is a multi-part series of analysis on what Republican Governor Rick Snyder has on his Agenda for Michigan and 1) What possible leadership examples, sources and methodologies he is drawing from, and 2) What issues and challenges the new "Nerd" Governor will face.
While we might not know everything about Rick Snyder, but... one thing is clear, he ain’t John Engler...
New Nerd CEO Snyder(r) (on the left in 2011): "Hi folks, I’m a Nerd..."
Gov Engler(R) (way on the right in the 1990's): "Those punks"
PART 1 of the Series continues...
Cross-posted from Blogging for Michigan.
Current PART 1:
An INTRODUCTION to Nerd–Centric Politics and Michinomics 101
Series continues with:
PART 2 - Translating the Snyder Strategy: MGT 101
PART 3 - Applications of the Milliken Model for Leadership LDR 204
PART 4 - Applications of the Milliken Model for Legislating LDR 204
PART 5 - Return of the Michigan Moderate Age? SOC 305
PART 6 - How the Right will Resist / Fight Nerd-centric Politics SSDD101
PART 7 - Capstone (TBD)
What did the Nerd-Gov just say?
For the formally trained business professional, like an MBA or any management, strategy or performance improvement consultant, Wednesday night’s walk through or ‘presentation’ by Ann Arbor businessman Gov Rick Snyder, was as easy to understand and absorb as riding a bike, reading a newspaper, or tying one’s own shoes.
However, for a lot of new legislators and even most of Michigan’s political analysts and self-confident pundits however, judging by their puzzled looks, white as sheets in some sections of the House Chamber, and a raff of predominately disjointed series of articles purporting to dissect Rick Snyder’s State of the State speech being passed around and discussed, his style was difficult to understand.
Analysis from our predominately Republican-leaning, conservative corporate media pundits and a lot of citizens just didn’t get the Snyder-style speech given in the form of a typical Business Plan or Company Strategy Briefing. While incomplete, the necessary structure and approach descriptions were there for the taking. This is why it is important to assist the public and many green legislators on Snyder’s if nothing else, innovative approach and method of communication and governance.
Some reporters are baffled, while others are on the right track, two prime examples are Tim Skubick and Tom Walsh.
The Skoop in "Rick Snyder's Schizophrenic State of the State":
The one description [Snyder] does answer to is being a practical and pretty sharp business guy which means his decisions will be data driven and not politically based. Voters wanted a non-career politician who could run the state like a business and now they have one.
Walsh from the Detroit Free Press in "Snyder's speech gets down to business":
Like a no-nonsense, politically agnostic businessman, Gov. Rick Snyder spent most of his 43-minute State of the State speech ticking off a to-do list of stuff designed to create more jobs and help companies profit and prosper.
(Break)
My main takeaway from the speech: We elected a business guy and he just gave us the first draft of a business plan.
The irony is that the same old perennial conservative critics of former Gov Jennifer Granholm, and wizened political observers have lobbied and pleaded night and day for business-type thinking leader to "fix" Michigan. They seem to be unable to understand the language of a businessman like Snyder in his "Reinvent Michigan" approach that is attempting to use business models and tools, to give them what they have been asking for all these years, radical change.
Gone are the long nights of cigars and whiskey-smoke filled ‘strategy’ and gab sessions working out their versions of good ‘ol boy consensus. Onlookers and ‘expert’ media people will have to learn some new skills and do some worker retraining just like everybody else.
The question is: Will Snyder give the conservative right-wingers the radical change what they want?
Below is a young full of piss and vinegar John Engler on the cover of the Cooley Law School was the on the cover of the institution’s magazine "Benchmark" in 1990.
The fact is; Governor John Engler was no businessman.
If Snyder and his advisors Benchmarked John Engler, what did/might they learn?
Engler’s influence and direction came from his own ‘internal’ polling and a close set group of compatriots whose opinion validated his own agenda (more on that later). Engler was a career politician who only had a brief, unsuccessful time (at EDS) in the real business world.
This analysis is a prime example of how John Engler ruled taken from an article that appeared in Governing, a popular legislators’ 'insider' journal back in 2001:
"For a concise list of the problems faced by state government over the past decade, there’s no need to look any further than Michigan. For an equally concise list of decisive actions taken in the face of those problems, there’s no need to look any further than Michigan’s governor, John Engler. Whether in education, social services or the economy, the 53-year-old Engler has consistently made policy in his own image — and he’s never cared much about the feathers he ruffled in the process. "His attitude has always been, ‘Just get it done,’ and if he doesn’t have to ask first, he won’t," says Bill Rustem, vice president of Public Sector Consultants, a nonpartisan government think tank in Lansing.
Because of his steamroller style, Engler’s reign in Michigan is as easily defined by those who don’t like him as by those who do. Early in his tenure, he eliminated general welfare assistance for able-bodied adults and pushed to close state mental hospitals, winning him the eternal enmity of social service activists. When [Engler] reorganized environmental programs in the name of accountability and efficiency, critics saw it as a tactic of "divide and conquer." He’s regularly at war with organized labor, and has backed numerous initiatives to weaken unions, including tightening rules that restrict teacher strikes."
[emphasis added]
More on Comparisons of Snyder vs. Engler Leadership Styles and Skills in PARTS 3 & 4 and opposition tactics in PART 6.
What is really entertaining, is that many on the right-hand sidelines and conservatives think-tanks world, and many among the loudest know-it-alls, I’ve-been-here-since-Father-Jacques-Marquette-mapped-Michigan pundits, are left COMPLETELY in the dark.
One early example: the Mackinac/Heritage Center macadamia nut, Hilldale’s Gary Wolfram:
Governor Snyder delivered an interesting State of the State address this Wednesday. [Snyder] did not lay out a philosophy of governance — what is the proper role of government — yet he did indicate that entrepreneurial activity is the key to economic growth.
Whoa professor... Oh yes, Snyder did, and some of you, most of you, missed it.
But to be fair let’s give these professional conservatives some credit. They have their contacts, maybe not at Snyder House in A2, but in the capital building and it is more likely that right-wing conservatives do know what’s going on inside the Snyder Team.
It’s just they know already they don’t have a clue how to stop it, or they don’t like what may be coming in the form of future ‘Snyder Style’ positions and reports, the first of which is promised in March and and another in April, outlining the Snyder Team specifics and legislative goals, starting with their pet ‘pain’, spreading their form of ‘sacrifice’ on the little guy, the State of Michigan budget.
How frustrating it must be to see that there is no indication that the 10-point Plan from the Mackinac/Heritage Center or other conservative plans will be adopted wholesale (or even half-sale) into Snyder’s budget or other proposals. So we can all expect their media machinery to be working overtime (at regular pay rates) giving Snyder’s plans an immediate ‘work over’ and harsh grubbing.
More on this in Part 6: How the Right will Resist / Fight Nerd-centric Politics SSDD101.
The paid-for-being-conservatives at the Mackinac Center propaganda operations and elsewhere, just don’t get Rick Snyder.
Snarks one of our favorite low GPA class cut-ups shooting a spit-wad at Snyder:
"From the first female governor, To the first nerd governor. From blonde to bland. From theatrics to metrics. From dash to dashboard. Michigan has entered a different era of executive leadership."
BINGO!
As far as the Governor’s office is concerned, if you don’t show up with real data, and are not dependent on the slanted sludge that has been passed on as factual for ‘reports’ these days, you are in serious trouble. Gov Snyder is looking for more scientific-based decisions and policy making, not arcane or farcical ideological ceremonies.
The message from Snyder people is:
If you don’t present substantive, verifiable and research quality numbers and information, and a solid business case for change don’t bother to make an appointment.
Snyder has made it clear already that he will not act on political positioning and slogans alone. His stated organizational culture is that of a "relentless positive action". Ideologues will get a Snyder smile, a thank you and a complementary propeller beanie, the ones that people are giggling about, that says "I’m a Wannabe Nerd" and be shown the door.
Most of American politics has adopted the 9 second partisan, political punditry sound bite. But to understand Rick Snyder Michigan politicians and citizens alike are going to have to start learning how to deal in logical, supportable bullet points and data bytes.
This is probably what Snyder is saying when he says there is "real work to do", because his approach has never been a significant part of Michigan’s culture in Lansing taken seriously in our political landscape.
The public will have to read charts and printouts, and most of all, learn to accept the new business rules of the Snyder Era, however how short it might last, and that of the "data driven" political decision.
One might call Snyder’s approach Nerd-Centric Politics and Michinomics 101.
BOTTOMLINE:
The days of running around with the last thing you heard on Fox News, the AM radio other sources in the Republican Noise Machine, or even some conservative political think-tank newsletter in your hands, or your on lips are over... we think, at least for a Snyder spell.
The Night School of Nerd-Centric Politics is now in session - serving and enlightening students since... well... since Wednesday (Registrations is Open to all Michigan citizens, All classes are free and non-refundable or transferable).
This continuing Series is a ‘best effort’ analysis on what we know about the Snyder Administration’s Approach, good or bad or indifferent, will be outlined in a way that we can understand on what Rick Snyder has in store for us.
Currently you are reading PART 1: INTRODUCTION to Nerd –Centric Politics and Michinomics 101
NEXT UP...
PART 2 - Translating the Snyder Strategy: MGT 101
The basics on the Business Approaches and Terms Used by the Snyder Administration: What is benchmarking? What is a ‘dashboard’ or 'Value for Money'? Where does this economic 'hunting' terminology find its roots? Etc.
PART 3 - Applications of the Milliken Model for Leadership LDR 204
PART 4 - Applications of the Milliken Model for Legislating LDR 204
PART 5 - Return of the Michigan Moderate Age? SOC 305
PART 6 - How the Right will Resist / Fight Nerd-centric Politics SSDD101
PART 7 - Capstone (TBD)
RELATED: Michigan's CEO Elect Rick Snyder's Appointments Unabridged Profiles
RELATED: Rick Snyder Transition Team Profiles HERE
RELATED: Snyder Transition Challenges and Analysis now posted HERE.
RELATED: Rick Snyder Transition Hits Snag and Will Snyder Toe-the-line?
Permission granted by the authors to repost as you see fit, others have to do their homework too.