The Afghanistan Reboot: Can Obama and Petraeus Work Together? by Joe Klein from Time Magazine  is a thoughtful piece about the situation in Afghanistan.

One thing that I have learned from my experience in the Army and my experience in private sector employment is the danger of trying to go over the head of your boss and to appeal to higher authority to get what you want.  I am beginning to see that this was the technique that McChrystal and some others in the military have been trying to use.

The analogy to my experience isn’t perfect, but I think it still applies.  Unless your boss is totally incompetent, he or she enjoys the confidence of his or her boss.  Your boss’s boss probably knows your boss much better than he or she knows you.  The further up the chain of command you go, the more likely these observations are true.

When you go up that chain of command, you are asking your boss’s boss to consider issues that he or she has delegated to your boss.  The first thing your boss’s boss is likely to do is to ask your boss for an explanation of the issue.

If your boss appears to his or her boss to have a good handle on the situation, then the issue will probably be re-delegated to your boss.

The bottom line is that you had better have an exceptional case to present if you want to try going up the chain of command.  You had also better have strong evidence that you have tried all the normal processes to be heard and that those processes did not give your idea a fair hearing.  You should also believe in your case so strongly that you are willing to risk your career over it.

At the very least you need to be aware of the above dynamic and be prepared to take counter measures to overcome your disadvantages.  Understanding the dynamic makes you think of ways to avoid being seen as just a chronic complainer.