Sorry I've not posted for a while, so this is to wish you a Happy New Year. I've been thinking about some of the questions that you ask re. work and responsibility raised by your meeting with Etienne Wenger. As a Senior Manager in local government it also raises questions about control and effectively inputting into this process. Our borough, along with most across the country, has moved very quickly into the 'performance' culture - but the ability of Managers to feed into working more effectively is complex - inevitably compromised by both the political process, usually around cost saving activities, and a huge range of targets from central gov. + myriad agencies.
Further complications are often a consequence of other departments out-sourcing tasks [away from the centre] to save money to either private organisations, for instance 'IT resources', or HR & pay-roll processes to individual departments - thus dictating large amounts of extra works with no additional resources. This is a bit heavy for Boxing Day.
You've a couple of photos together below of a blue flower and a road petering out into a country scene - the colouring immediately reminded of so many Caspar David Friedrich's landscapes and that wistful winter light that precipitates dusk!
3 comments:
Chris,
Sorry I've not posted for a while, so this is to wish you a Happy New Year. I've been thinking about some of the questions that you ask re. work and responsibility raised by your meeting with Etienne Wenger. As a Senior Manager in local government it also raises questions about control and effectively inputting into this process. Our borough, along with most across the country, has moved very quickly into the 'performance' culture - but the ability of Managers to feed into working more effectively is complex - inevitably compromised by both the political process, usually around cost saving activities, and a huge range of targets from central gov. + myriad agencies.
Further complications are often a consequence of other departments out-sourcing tasks [away from the centre] to save money to either private organisations, for instance 'IT resources', or HR & pay-roll processes to individual departments - thus dictating large amounts of extra works with no additional resources. This is a bit heavy for Boxing Day.
You've a couple of photos together below of a blue flower and a road petering out into a country scene - the colouring immediately reminded of so many Caspar David Friedrich's landscapes and that wistful winter light that precipitates dusk!
Peter
Hi Peter
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here.
Chris
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