<story><title>Nobody Likes the “Idea Guy”</title><url>https://www.riskology.co/idea-guy/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lkrubner</author><text>About &amp;quot;idea guys&amp;quot;. During World War II, after the defeat at Dunkirk, Britain formed a national government, headed by Winston Churchill. This was not a Conservative government, but rather, was national, in that all parties were invited to participate. A number of MPs suggested that, to increase participation of small parties, Churchill should appoint a few &amp;quot;Ministers Without Portfolio&amp;quot;. He absolutely refused. He had previous experience with this and thought it was a disaster. &amp;quot;Ministers Without Portfolio&amp;quot; became &amp;quot;idea guys&amp;quot;. In meetings, they made lots of suggestions, and they held up conversations with their ideas, but they were not in charge of anything so they never really had to take responsibility when things went wrong. Perhaps worst of all, in Churchill&amp;#x27;s view, because such ministers had no real responsibilities, they aggravated everyone else by asking questions about what the ministers with real responsibilities were up to.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>maxxxxx</author><text>&amp;quot; &amp;quot;idea guys&amp;quot;. In meetings, they made lots of suggestions, and they held up conversations with their ideas, but they were not in charge of anything so they never really had to take responsibility when things went wrong&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Reminds me of a whole layer of people at corporate headquarters of my company. They send out beautiful newsletters, hold seminars and meetings about all kinds of stuff but as soon as it has been published it fizzles out and nothing comes out of it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Nobody Likes the “Idea Guy”</title><url>https://www.riskology.co/idea-guy/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lkrubner</author><text>About &amp;quot;idea guys&amp;quot;. During World War II, after the defeat at Dunkirk, Britain formed a national government, headed by Winston Churchill. This was not a Conservative government, but rather, was national, in that all parties were invited to participate. A number of MPs suggested that, to increase participation of small parties, Churchill should appoint a few &amp;quot;Ministers Without Portfolio&amp;quot;. He absolutely refused. He had previous experience with this and thought it was a disaster. &amp;quot;Ministers Without Portfolio&amp;quot; became &amp;quot;idea guys&amp;quot;. In meetings, they made lots of suggestions, and they held up conversations with their ideas, but they were not in charge of anything so they never really had to take responsibility when things went wrong. Perhaps worst of all, in Churchill&amp;#x27;s view, because such ministers had no real responsibilities, they aggravated everyone else by asking questions about what the ministers with real responsibilities were up to.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>NeedMoreTea</author><text>Of course Churchill was perhaps one of the biggest idea guys of the lot. He did plenty, but he also interfered and had bad ideas a plenty too. Thankfully, he was mostly open to being told to butt out.&lt;p&gt;The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (SOE) was a famous Churchill enthusiasm, yet he had many useless impractical ones, that were a huge distraction, too.</text></comment>