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If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: A Chapter by Chapter Guide to the Book

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If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: A Chapter by Chapter Guide to the BookIntroduction

  • The Seven Deadly Traps on the Journey to Success
  • The Big Dig and the Red Herring Bolt
  • Missing the Evidence of Recurring Failure
  • Blaming People vs. Blaming the System
  • Katrina and the Separation of Powers
  • A Map for the Journey to Success
  • A Process Perspective
  • The Marshall Plan: A Process View
  • The Seven Deadly Traps on the Journey to Success
  • The Importance of Invisible Systems
  • The Delicious Cause of Cholera in London

Chapter One

  • The Tolstoy Trap: You’ll See It when You Believe It
  • The Idea of an Idea
  • Dick Nixon: Tire Rationer, Inflation Fighter
  • Whip Inflation Now
  • The Tolstoy Syndrome
  • Health Care Reform in Massachusetts: The Meeting of the Minds
  • Pearls of Wisdom from the Cyber Mob
  • The Opposite of an Idea
  • Politics, Economics, and the Copenhagen Consensus

Chapter Two

  • The Design-Free Design Trap: Blueprint Bootcamp
  • Don Shula and Medicare Reform
  • Choice Overload
  • The Design-Free Design Trap
  • California’s Electricity Belly Flop
  • A Blueprint for Disaster
  • Failing the Enron Test
  • How Legislation Gets Written Today
  • The Discipline of Design
  • Designing for the Real World
  • Ready, Fire, Aim
  • Design for Execution

Chapter Three

  • The Stargate Trap: The Space Between Possibility and Reality
  • The Stargate Trap
  • Boston’s Busing Nightmare: 77 Days to Disaster
  • The Secret Recipe for Change
  • Reducing Acid Rain: Breaking the Impasse
  • Japan’s Number One Elvis Fan Goes Postal
  • The Distortion Effects of Stargate
  • Tom Davis and the Culture of the Beltway
  • Lessons from the Gulf of Tonkin
  • The Marshall Plan: A Better Way

Chapter Four

  • The Overconfidence Trap: Fear, Risk and the Best Laid Plans
  • Mayor Livingstone Makes London Drivers Pay
  • The Overconfidence Trap
  • The Real Tragedy of the Commons
  • War Games in London
  • A Trip Up Mount Washington
  • Iraq Reconstruction: Plan B
  • First Impressions: The Boy with the Vase
  • The Scary Secret of Successful Implementation

Chapter Five

  • The Sisyphus Trap: The Rock, the Hill, and You
  • Mayor Riordan Turns Around LA, and Vice Versa
  • The Sisyphus Trap
  • Incentives Without Carrots or Sticks
  • Culture Matters
  • Politics and Bureaucracy: Bridging the Divide
  • James Webb and Putting a Man on the Moon
  • An Ever Steeper Hill
  • Pretzel Logic
  • Welfare Reform 1996: Beating the Double Sisyphus Trap
  • Systems, People, and Results

Chapter Six

  • The Complacency Trap: Changing Times
  • Mickey Landry Returns to New Orleans
  • The Complacency Trap
  • Pruitt-Igoe and Dynamiting Obsolete Structures
  • Sloughing Off Yesterday
  • Sunset in the Lone Star State
  • Fixing the White House
  • Herbert Hoover’s Comeback
  • Schwarzenegger’s Reforms Get Terminated
  • NASA’s Twin Tragedies
  • The Risk of Complacency

Chapter Seven

  • The Silo Trap: The Walls Between Us
  • Energy Bill Celebrations
  • Four Decades of Groundhog Day
  • The Silo Trap
  • 9/11 and Silos of Excellence
  • Katrina and the Weakest Link
  • Chickens in Manhattan
  • Lessons from Reengineering
  • Setting Goals, Measuring Progress
  • The Common Link Between Bad Movies and Bad Policy

Chapter Eight

  • Creating a Better Future: The Execution Mindset
  • Mr. Moynihan Goes to Washington
  • LBJ Declares War—Twice
  • Moynihan’s Obsession
  • The Remarkable Dwight Ink
  • The Alaska Earthquake of 1964
  • “Mr. Implementation” in the White House
  • Closing an Agency for Ronald Reagan
  • Taking Government Work Seriously
  • The Courage to Make Yourself Heard
  • Your Turn

 

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