Testimony

I have to steal a minute to share one really cool activity that I participated in. I helped to prepare the Administrator of the Agency for testimony in the House. This was a terrific experience for me because I saw the method for the preparation and how much effort went into it. I kid you not when I say that a lot of energy went into this activity. There was an analysis on each person in the committee and sub-committee. We looked at the issues that have had meaning for each person over time. We examined correspondence over time to make sure we were cognizant of current letters and requests.

We ended up with a big package of briefing materials including a 1-pager on each of the 20 or so hottest topics that were likely to come up. Some of the anticipated issues came up, and many did not. Of course there were some issues that came up that were not anticipated. The Administrator did a great job, and I think the sub-committee appreciated her candor and honesty.

With all of this in mind, two things are clear to me: first, people have been performing this testimony preparation for the past 20 years with little or no change and, second, there is a significant opportunity for technology to help in making this process better.

The biggest issue in my opinion is speed. We had a lot of the right information. It was on a card, and as I said, we had about 20 cards with the key issues. The problem is that when the Representative asks a question, he or she wants a response. Time is critical during these hearings. Each Representative has 5 minutes to ask questions and get responses. If a minute of that time is used trying to find the right card and get it to the Administrator then that is wasted time that cannot be recovered. I don't know how they would feel about bringing an I-pad to the speaker's table, but if that is allowed I strongly suspect that a person could quickly rolodex to the right card and begin answering faster than with paper. I don't know if there is a rolodex type of app that you can get, but I think there is a lot of opportunity here.

The other issue is with the unanticipated questions. What the Administrator is looking for then is guidance from the senior people in making the response. This typically takes the form of a note card with hastily scribbled points being passed up. The opportunity here is to use a quick messaging product like Google Talk, or Instant Messenger. Instead of having those senior people scribbling a note on a piece of paper, type in those comments into Google Talk and make them instantly available to the speaker. The beauty of this is that several people can easily contribute ideas to the issue and make them all available.

Remember, all of this is contingent on being able to put an I-pad on the table which may or may not be allowed. Some day soon I'll share some more good new with you, but this is all I have time for today.