The Product/Org Officer system, covered fully in Flag Executive Briefing Course tapes, contains the key phrase for any Product Officer. This is

A Product Officer has to name, WANT and get his product.

Where no real or valuable production is occurring, one has to ask the question, does the Product Officer really WANT the product he is demanding? And does the staff member or members he is dealing with WANT the product?

Breaking this down into its parts we find that the most common failure of any Product Officer or staff member or Purchaser lies in the first item, NAME YOUR PRODUCT!

The reason that a psychotic or otherwise evilly intentioned person cannot achieve anything as a Product Officer or staff member is that he does NOT want the product to occur. The intentions of psychos are aimed at destruction and not at creation.

On org boards and even for sections, one has products listed. Departments have valuable final products. Every staff member has one or more products.

Such persons may SAY they want the product but this is just “PR” and a cover for their real activities.

IF PRODUCTION IS NOT OCCURRING, THE ABILITY TO NAME THE PRODUCT IS PROBABLY MISSING.

People who are PTS (potential trouble sources by reason of connections with people antagonistic to what they are doing in life) are all too likely to slide into the valence of the antagonistic person who definitely would NOT want the product.

Misunderstood post titles were collected once on a wide survey. Whenever it was found a staff member did not seem to be able to do his job, it was checked whether he knew the definition of the word — or words — that made up his post title. It was found, one for one, that he could not define it even though no unusual or special definition was being requested. In other words, the first thing about the post could not be defined — the post title. This may seem incredible, but only until you yourself check it out on staff that habitually goof.

Thus, in an org run by or overloaded with destructive persons or PTS persons, you see a very low level of production if you see any at all. And the production is likely to be what is called “an overt product,” meaning a bad one that will not be accepted or cannot be traded or exchanged and has more waste and liability connected with it than it has value.

The ability to NAME the product required goes further than a mere, glib definition. Some engineers once drove a Purchaser halfway up the wall by glibly requesting “one dozen bolts.” The Purchaser kept bringing back all different thicknesses and lengths and types of bolts. The Purchaser was going daffy and so were the engineers. Until the engineers were forced to exactly name what they were seeking by giving it ALL its name. The Purchaser trying to purchase could not possibly obtain his product without being able to FULLY name it. Once this was done, nothing was easier.

One has to actually WANT the product he is asking for or is trying to produce. There may be many reasons he does not, none of which are necessarily connected with being psycho. But if it is a creative and valuable product and assists his and the survival of others and he still does not want it, then one should look for PTSness or maybe even a bit of psychosis. And at the least, some withholds.

A Product Officer can ask, beg, plead, yell for his product. But maybe he isn’t naming it! Maybe he isn’t naming it fully. And maybe even he doesn’t know the name of it. A Product Officer should spend some time exactly and accurately naming the exact product he wants before asking for it. Otherwise he and his staff may be struggling around over many misunderstood words!

One does not have to be in a passionate mystic daze about wanting the product. But one shouldn’t be moving mountains in the road of a guy trying to carry some lumber to the house site either.

When you see a staff whirling around and dashing into walls and each other and not producing a thing, calmly try to find out if any of them or their Product Officer can NAME what products they are trying to produce. Chances are, few of them can and maybe the Product Officer as well.

The question of WANT the product has to be included in any examination of reasons why a person or an org isn’t producing.

Handle and it will all smooth out and products will occur.