Dennis McCarthy: The System is Chicken
Dennis McCarthy, former deputy project manager for the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), describes organizational structures and processes as “chicken”—no match for strong leadership.
Recorded at Masters with Masters Unexpected Insights.
(Transcript) I could come back in here now and tell you, 7120, I can’t get this done. But I gave a talk recently somewhere in Annapolis with you people and I said, Just tell me what it is. What is the current situation at NASA? Is it 7120? What is it? And I’ll work around it or I’ll work with it. But I just need to know what it is. You can impose TQM or whatever it is, we can work that out. You can work with it. And when I say that the system is chicken, the system needs you – needs me – to tell them what we can do.
It’s leadership.
Leadership.