I never had the pleasure of taking any Anthropology classes while at Penn (I was stuck in the bowels of the Towne Building) but your point resonates with me since I have scientists of so many varied disciplines working for me. And thanks for the image of a green pie…yuck.

I heard when Ben Franklin went to France, none of the ladies would dance with him, so befuddled was he. They would say, “Now Ben, I would like you to dance with me, but you can’t even fluently interact with, or even fully understand my culture!!”

At that point, he thoroughly regretted ever publishing his findings on lightning to the Royal Academy. And he promptly burned his copy of Newton’s Optics in his Franklin Stove.

It seems to me that the main point of your post is that before we start developing a website that pools together information about what various offices and programs are doing on a specific environmental issue, we should be thinking about how we in fact integrate these activities to achieve increased program efficiencies and positive environmental results. Or if that thinking is actually taking place, it needs to be communicated widely across the Agency, so you don’t get a group of scientists sitting in a room wondering how to structure web content without any sense of direction. IMHO, this points to the need for stronger science-based program planning and integration AND involving all employees in the process or at least effectively communicating it to them.
And with all due respect to Prof. Stout, there are scientists out there who have very strong communication skills. It’s not a forgone conclusion that scientist=lack of communication skills! But we definitely can do a better job of developing and honing the communication skills of all EPA scientists. So far the paradigm has been, you scientists do the work and the public affairs folks will take care of the communication. As you can see, that approach isn’t working!