Killing old/slow groups - transition thinking

[john.loughney@nokia.com]

Marshall,

> john - you raise a larger issue here. today's wall street journal has =
this
> headline for one of its articles:
>=20
> 	Lawmakers Toughen Rules, but Toughness Can't Be Legislated

I've always viewed these kind of rules as a cop-out, best to put in
place rules which are automatic, otherwise one might need to think.
=20
> which may illustrate the sort of situation we find ourselves in.  to =
summarize
> my note yesterday to harald, there seems to have been some kind of =
long-term
> degeneration of the IESG's ability to say "no" or to link actions to
> consequences.
>
> considering that you have 13 folks who enjoy above-average =
intellegence,
> substantive professional accomplishment, meaningful community =
goodwill, etc., i
> don't know why this is.  the problem didn't start with the sitting =
IESG, as it
> seems we've been on this slope for a while.

Part of the problem is that we are the victim of our success.  IP is the =
dominant
networking technology, so of course the industry does want to do things =
with
it.  Not all of those things will be to our liking and some may cause us
to re-think our long cherished beliefs.  Even if we say we won't do =
something,
it doesn't mean it won't get done anyway.

I still don't have a good sense of what the balance is, what do we =
accept, what
to we try to change and so forth.  I do think that some process =
improvements
may help, but we do have a tough job.

John