The Urgent Directive System (see HCO Policy Letter of 31 October 1966, "Administrative Know-How II’ ’) is the one most commonly used, when they have to intervene, by senior executives such as the following:

The routine in this case is more or less as follows:

1. The senior, on discovery of a bad situation or noncompliance, issues an urgent directive. (If more than one is issued at the same time by different seniors, the list above is the precedence list of what order to follow.)

2. The senior directs investigation. Senior Ad Council usually appoints a Board of Investigation — sometimes directly orders a Comm Ev. The Founder might only require an ED from his LRH Comm in that area. The Guardian might require only an ED from an Asst Guardian. An Exec Sec might require only an ED from his or her communicator if he or she has one. Or any on the list may order a Board.

3. The ordering senior, on receipt of the requested directive in draft form, then returns it to the Ad Council of the org or orgs to which it will apply. Until the Ad Council acts or some directive to handle the situation is passed, the original, most senior urgent directive remains in force.

The above would be the most common admin action, most calculated to bring things right in the long run.

It is important that until some form of ED is formally passed by the Ad Council of the org or orgs concerned, the urgent directive must be followed by those to whom it is addressed.

This keeps arbitraries from entering into admin.

Nothing, of course, prevents a senior executive, as listed above, from simply issuing straight orders with no follow-through of an ED. In such case, the directive is not called an urgent directive, but is simply an order in ED form.

Example: The Guardian discovers that a high unreasonable rental compared to income is being contemplated. By any means or ED, she forbids it and demands other quarters be looked for quickly. This requires no follow-through beyond the Guardian making sure other quarters ARE found and the order is complied with.

Example: The Founder finds a long string of people are being labeled suppressive because they won’t separate from Joe Blow. He writes an urgent directive to stop labeling people this way and convenes a Board on the whole subject in that org, gets their findings in the form of an ED, sends it to that Ad Council. They pass it after some, none or many changes. The urgent order ceases to be in force at that moment. He could also have simply issued a direct order.

Example: An HCO Exec Sec finds Central Files is not increasing. She issues an urgent directive to round up all CF names lying around the org. Then investigates personally, writes an ED and puts it before the Ad Council. They work on it, modify it or expand it and pass it. The urgent directive ceases to be valid. Remember, she could as easily simply have issued a direct order as above. It could even have been in Executive Directive form.

Example: An impending lawsuit is heard of by the Guardian, the senior Ad Council and the local Ad Council where it will occur. The Guardian and senior Ad Council both issue urgent directives and the local Ad Council passes a directive on it. The Guardian’s urgent directive wipes out the orders junior to it and it is followed. On the Guardian getting an ED from the Assistant Guardian of that org, the Guardian sends the ED before that org’s Ad Council for passage or change. The Guardian’s urgent directive is superseded by the Ad Council’s directive based on it. But remember, the Guardian can comm-ev the lot if the situation is not finally handled, regardless of the Ad Council directive having been passed, if things goofed up.

A direct order or a straight directive can be petitioned against after compliance. The Ad Council simply passes a petition and gives any data required or an ED to substitute.

It is usually wise to give a better remedy in the form of an ED and get that ED conditionally passed with the approval of the original issuer of the direct order or straight directive.

Those who do the work sometimes know best and those nearest the scene are sometimes better armed with data.

A senior executive sometimes has to act without all the data and a wise senior often so acts when the situation is bad.

But the senior is only trying to remedy the situation in the final analysis. After his ordered fast action is taken, he is ordinarily quite happy to have help improving the remedy.

An urgent directive or direct order may also be handled as follows by a senior:

1. Issue it.

2. Send it to the Ad Council of the org to which it applies with the note: “After you’ve done this, pass a directive to handle this sort of thing.”

A senior can simply demand an Ad Council pass a directive to remedy a situation and let them sort it out. This is only done when one has almost no data.

In this case the Ad Council passes one, puts it in force and sends a copy to the senior via channels stating, “Compliance herewith.”

When an Executive Directive is passed by an Ad Council, if it wipes out an urgent directive or a direct submission or a demanded directive, the resulting ED must bear the fact under its title: Executive Directive after Board of Investigation — “Cancels Urgent Directive PE96 Get Income Up”; or direct submission after urgent directive— “As requested by HCO Exec Sec W./U.S. to augment her direct order Get Income Up”; or by demand for a directive — “As demanded by Ad Council WW in their cable 239 WW Pass a directive increasing income.”

The Danger Formula applies when such orders bypass those responsible, meaning at least an ethics investigation must occur to find who was asleep if any.

However, the Founder or Guardian can issue an urgent directive or direct order to any org and order the Ad Council of any org, as they are in fact seniors of that immediate org, without having to take ethics action on the Ad Council WW or the senior Ad Council to that org. However in such cases Ad Council WW and the senior Ad Council are informed.

If, however, the Founder or Guardian have to do too much too often, they step back upstairs and investigate the senior Ad Councils. This has been the usual practice.

The Founder usually uses his LRH Comm, and the Guardian her Assistant Guardian or the LRH Comm in that area to effect orders, get data and submit to Ad Council.

A senior Ad Council uses its area representative in its own group or the LRH Comm in the junior Ad Council to do the same thing.

In practice, one issues urgent directives when the situation is rough and simply demands a directive when things look like they will get rough.

Intervention by seniors is hard for juniors to cope with. The best defense is don’t develop bad situations that then require intervention and keep all stats up and the org expanding.

[Note: The paragraph under “Labeling Directives,” which contained a typographical error in the original issue, has been corrected per HCO PL 21 December 1966, CORRECTION TO HCO POLICY LETTER OF 17 NOVEMBER 1966, ‘ADMIN KNOW-HOW, INTERVENTION.’]