STRATEGY 



progress from time to time, and make adjustments; but if it 

 tries to do more, it will do harm."^^ 



Technical committees and research directors can often help 

 in planning at the strategic level providing they work in consulta- 

 tion with the man who is going to do the work and do not 

 attempt to dictate tactics. Committees are of most value in 

 planning at the poUcy level, in calling attention to problems of 

 importance to the community and making available the necessary 

 finances and scientists. Another useful function that a com- 

 mittee can sometimes perform is to accelerate advances by seeing 

 that workers in different laboratories are kept informed of each 

 other's progress without the usual delay entailed in publication. 

 Some war-time committees did useful service in co-ordinating 

 scattered work in this way. 



It is perhaps so obvious as to be scarcely worth mentioning 

 that planning at the strategic and poUcy levels places a heavy 

 responsibiUty on the planners, and is only likely to be successful 

 when entrusted to people who have a real understanding of 

 research as well as a good general knowledge in science. It is 

 generally recognised that a committee which draws up pro- 

 grammes of research at the strategic level should consist mainly 

 of men actively engaged in the field of research in which the 

 problem falls. Unfortunately often committees are too incUned to 

 play safe and support only projects which are planned in detail 

 and follow conventional lines of work. Worthwhile advances are 

 seldom made without taking risks. 



Plans and projects are in order for tackling recognised 

 problems, that is to say, for applied research, but science also 

 needs the independent worker who pursues pure research without 

 thought of practical results. 



In team work some individual or individuals should usually 

 take the lead and do the thinking. There are, of course, some 

 scientists who are not well fitted to do independent research 

 and yet who may be very useful working under close direction 

 as members of a team. Other things being equal, the person 

 with a fertile imagination makes a better leader than someone 

 with a purely logical mind, for the former is more inspiring as 

 well as more useful in providing ideas. But the leader of 

 a team needs to be actively engaged on the problem himself. 



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