Some Intersect organizations (for example, regional transit districts) serve as buffers and mediators between conflicting organizations, while other Intersect organizations (for example, Amtrak) serve as quasi-governmental agencies that run utility, transportation or communication systems. Other quasi-governmental organizations operate as a joint powers agency or joint powers authority (JPA) These are separate government organizations that are collaborative ventures that created by member agencies but are legally independent from them. A joint powers agency shares powers common to the member agencies, and those powers are outlined in the joint powers agreement. I had the opportunity to serve as a consultant to one of these JPAs. Called the Cooperative Personnel Services (CPS), this JPA, according to one of its managers was:
. . . established to provide personnel and management services to public and nonprofit organizations. It is a “cross-over” organization. It is public, but received no public funding; consequently, it is entrepreneurial. It is not in the business of profit but since its existence is not supported by statue or funding, it is highly concerned with long term financial stability and financial health to support expansion as needed. . . . Even though public, CPS faces similar issues to private organizations: client satisfaction, efficiency, market analysis, etc.
CPS found its market niche through the size and complexity of its client organizations. Some are small and unsophisticated around personnel management, yet have employees, boards, publics, or simply the laws of the land which require some sophistication. CPS provides that. Others were large and complex and had difficulty reacting to immediate needs. CPS was both small and uncomplicated by typical political processes. Consequently, it could provide a nimbleness otherwise unavailable to the client. CPS, like SPA, worked at the intersection between other organizations and the government. It was entrepreneurial, and like SPA could provide rapid response and cut through red tape—the classic advantages of many Intersect organizations. CPS is still operating, more than 20 years since I served as a consultant. Other joint powers administration organizations are still in place. They have similarly operated in a flexible, inter-sect manner.
A Hat Filled with Hubris
Given the emergence (and even potential predominance) of Intersect Organizations and given both the challenges and opportunities inherent in their form and function, we can explore its implications regarding the crisis of expertise and the new challenges and opportunities inherent in the professional coaching process. I will be tracing out these implications in a variety of ways in this essay but wish to begin with a specific example of how expertise gets profoundly messed up when moving across different intersects and claiming expertise in a new sector of society with absolutely no valid reason to be accepted as an expert in this sector. The example I will be using received a fair amount of attention several months ago when performance of the Trump presidency was being reviewed (often critically) by the media.
Crossing the Sector Boundaries
Specially, I wish to consider the multiple roles play by Steven Hatfill as a purported “expert” on several matters that influenced US policy. Hatfill was a 67-year-old immunology professor at George Washington University (in Washington D.C.) who came out of the blue with no credentials or credibility to guide US policy under Trump regarding the delay in COVID response and the false claims about the rigging of the US Presidential election in 2020. How did he become influential and where in the world did he get his very wrong information? Important questions for us to raise in general.
Hatfill became an “expert” advisor to the trade director (Peter Navarro) at the White House. at the time of the emails Hatfill wrote the following to a colleague in October of 2020: “Now with the elections so close, COVID is taking a back-seat, yet the disease is rearing it[s] ugly head again.”
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