This post is a comment under the post "How long will he last?". I am moving it here in the hopes that ULM (or their intelligence) see it and are reminded of the problem.
I thought it sums up the fundamental problem of LLNL
--- scooby --
You have raised a very significant question regarding the success of outside managers.
In my 30 years at the Lab, many of which were spent in WFO programs, I am not sure that I have seen any. On the other hand, I have seen numerous failures.
The underlying problem is that LLNL is not structured for WFO success. Part of the problem is internal, part is due to the DOE bureaucracy. The Lab is basically a weapons design lab. It is the best in the world in that mission, but that mission is dying.
If the Lab is ever to be successful in the WFO arena, we need to overhaul DOE or move the Lab out of that management. We cannot devote hundreds of millions of dollars to nonsense bureaucracy--IWSs, AB, etc. When we had a real enemy, political pressures keep the DOE bureaucrats at bay. Barring a true national emergency, we will never again be able to gain our previous status.
5 comments:
Its NNSA management - particularly LSO that is killing WFO at LLNL. NNSA is charged with nuclear weapons science, not doing basic science or advance research for others. Its like having the Dept of Transportation doing research work for the CDC - why? NNSA should keeps focus on what Congress created it to do... the DOE Office of Science should focus on what it is suppose to do. And with LLNL's NNSA mission getting smaller, a very strong case can be made that LLNL should be moved back under DOE Office of Science.
You are right that NNSA is the cause of many of our problems, but the lab upper level management(ULM) often interprets their directives in ways that make things worse. Take computer security for example, the lab's go them one bureaucratic step farther attitude is killing the small and medium size programs.
The sad part is that ULM seems completely clueless about this, but I don't think NNSA is. I think they have an evil plan to make LLNL so expensive and tied up in red tape that they have to close the place and give all the work to beltway contractors that say "how high" when they say "jump".
This used to drive me crazy, until I started taking it as a challenge. Each day I arrive at LLNL ready to take on NNSA and ULM's latest nutty plan to try and prevent us all from from working. Its like a new and unpredictable puzzle, and then I try to overcome or work around it(legally). So far I am still getting work done. In fact it is my new motto: "Annoy NNSA: accomplish work".
NNSA is a problem (incompetent people, poorly structured organization, etc.), but the problem does not stop there. The safety cancer that has been growing at the Lab since ISMS and many other bureaucratic processes (e.g., DEARS) have their roots in DOE Headquarters, not NNSA.
The Department of Energy needs to focus on energy. There are so many issues there to address; having DOE focus on other areas just detracts from its real mission.
Chu needs to work with Congress to restructure his Department and get many of his incompetent, wasteful bureaucrats out pounding the pavement looking for new jobs.
It appears to me for other national labs DOE works okay. Yes, there are problems, but not at the magnitude seen at LLNL and LANL. Makes me thinks its partly NNSA and mostly us (LLNL and LANL).
My answer to this question is . . . who's success? LLNS is making millions.
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