The problem isn't that we have pilots running the RAF - I hate to think what moronic ideas adminners would come up with without some form of restraint - the ONE catalyst to so many other problems is that few officers on their way to greatness stay in a job more than about 2 years, so their decision making is often accordingly short-term and, dare I say, headline-grabbing for promotion.
If your boss is a w@nker that can be a good thing because you won't have to put up with him for as long, but on the down side you will tend to inherit the consequences of said short-term thinking for a long time after their departure. The theory is that by changing jobs many times an officer comes out more well-rounded; unfortunately this pays scant regard to the concept of '...master of none'.
But then why bother being good at anything if you're going on to command other people doing it ? Why does it matter if you're in a job perhaps developing policy for it , based on your fleeting knowledge of the subject. Fortunately there are safeguards in place for your limited knowledge on a subject - your subordinates - who sometimes have a whole two years experience in a subject and are less than willing to say 'I don't know' to their boss. Oddly, this rarely passes their lips, so the baton of inexperience is passed on, resulting in many of the states we find ourselves. Until we can communicate properly within the organisation all bets are off for progress.
After 85 years in business it doesn't take a captain of industry to see our core problems - we keep demonstrating our lack of ability to learn every time we do something 'new'; but we're also missing a trick if we think a certain rank needs to do a job. In many management jobs it doesn't matter that I am a LAC, Sgt or Sqn Ldr - time builds experience, not rank or flying ability.
Last edited by FOMere2eternity; 21st Oct 2005 at 13:29.