P_123.doc

HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE

                  Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex


                    HCO POLICY LETTER OF 4 SEPTEMBER 1959


            (Re-issued as HCO Policy Letter of 21 November 1962)



CenOCon
Franchise
Field




                       COMPLETED STAFF WORK (C.S.W.) -
                 HOW TO GET APPROVAL OF ACTIONS AND PROJECTS


                    THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF YOUR HAT





    There is an old term called "Completed Staff Work"  which  we  will  now
employ in
order to reduce Dev T and increase speed of action.

    The  term  "Completed  Staff  Work"  means-an   assembled   package   of
information
on any given situation, plan  or  emergency  forwarded  to  me  sufficiently
complete to
require from me only an "Approved" or "Disapproved".

    Here is what slows  down  approval  and  action  and  develops  traffic:
Somebody
sends me a skimpy piece of information  and  demands  a  solution.  As  more
information
is required than is presented, I must then take over the  person's  Hat  and
assemble the
missing data using my own time and lines. I must then dream  up  a  solution
and then
order an action to be taken. This causes a slow-down on any  action,  causes
my lines,
already loaded, to be used for  information  assembly  and  brings  about  a
feeling of
emergency. My pending basket overloads and confusion results. This would  be
called
"Incomplete Staff Work". It is incomplete because I have to complete it by:

    1. Assembling the data necessary for a solution;

    2. Dreaming up the solution based on written data only;

    3. Issuing orders rather than approving orders.

    If you are mad at your boss you can always  ruin  him  with  "Incomplete
Staff
Work". You forward him a fragment of alarming data  without  collecting  the
whole
picture. This makes him do a full job of information  collection.  You  give
him no
recommended solution. This makes him have to achieve a solution by remote
examination of data; such  solutions  are  often  wrong  as  they  are  made
without full
data. Then you make him issue arbitrary and forceful  orders  that  may  ARC
break some
area and hurt his reputation. That's how to get even with a boss.  And  even
if there's no
intention of harming him, sending "Incomplete Staff Work" to your boss  does
harm
him by  making  him  send  for  information-getting  despatches  on  already
crowded lines,
by making him guess at the situation, by making him cook up solutions  which
may be
unreal, and by thrusting him into the role of an arbitrary tyrant.

    Now that we've seen the negative side, let us examine the positive side.

    "Completed Staff Work" is an assembled despatch or packet which:

    1. States the situation

    2. Gives all the data necessary to its solution

    3. Advises a solution; and

    4. Contains a line  for  approval  or  disapproval  by  myself  with  my
    signature.

    If documents or letters are to be signed as  part  of  my  action,  they
should be part
of the package, all ready to sign, and each place they have to be signed  is
indicated
with a pencil mark with a note in the recommendations saying signatures  are
needed.