Jean Matthews

August 6. 2007 15:14

Did they ask you to tidy your desk?

But you are so right...if you want to see messy working, both literally and metaphorically then look at an acute hospital ward or a casualty unit. It may look like Paddy's Market but it is a highly organic, interdependent and adaptive working environment and this in effect prevents mistakes (RIP) happening.....but I understand your point...and process wise they do experiment, on people like you and I. They use their knowledge, training skills and experiences to the full. Its a perfect example of complexity in action
I know there is a need for proceedures but the present obsession for tidying this up is through a plethora of algorithmic diagrams so that the 'patient journey (their words not mine) is systematised completely from beginning to end. So called 'good practice' will be set and like you say experiemntation, flexibility and adaptative working will halt. One of the biggest medico-legal cases was of a nurse who when admitting a known arsonist into a secure mental helath unit did not confiscate his cigarretes and matches because the procedure said they have the right to keep their personnel effects with them.......need I go on

Mr Gash Bhullar

August 6. 2007 16:47

The Public Sector in general needs far more accountability than it currently has. It’s better than it was under the WDA tyranny but the problem is that it is hard to find private companies, individuals or organisations that has the time or the inclination to take on this role.

Of course the third ingredient are the academics, they have much resource to deploy if you look from a UK perspective but of course they are not allowed to collaborate as this goes against the ethics of the current funding strategies, so they continue to “Guess” what business needs and plan accordingly. They have no clear targets to focus their energies on at a national level but instead carry out many small local projects that are not worth the white papers they are written on. What’s worse is that they actually “switch off” companies by waving mounds of paperwork and nothing to add to the bottom line.

The potential is now here for Wales to grasp the nettle with the WDA machine finally killed off. The crutch has been kicked away and its time for Welsh Businesses to show what they are made of. My fear is that we lack the passion and drive that is found in so many other countries and the Culture has to dramatically change for true leaders to immerge. There is no hunger for business as many companies are happy to potter along barely surviving. We are going to need something for people to aspire to and again, very few success stories are available to date. Something radical must happen to shake us out of the doom and gloom and bring excitement to our businesses.

Answers on a postcard… sorry blog… please.

Dr Kelly Page

August 7. 2007 09:06

While recently spending some time in a public sector office space I was amazed that at a certain time every week over the loud speaker was the request for all staff to have all files removed from their desk as the desks would be cleaned that evening ...

I wonder .... if the time, effort and energy spent mapping and documenting processes and micro-managing human behaviour in a quest for order and control was actually spent on service delivery, I wonder what type of public services we would have ...

Jean ... perhaps then the nurse might have used her knowledge and intuition and focused more on the case at hand and the net effect of cigarettes and matches to a known arsonist as opposed to ticking a box, and following 'protocol' 'policy' and 'procedure' ...

Oh what a time we live in ... messy is far more meaningful ....

kp :)

Jean Matthews

August 7. 2007 14:00

Hi Gash- I think it all depends on how you define accountability. What I wouldn't want to encourage in the NHS is the top down audit culture that entrenches set practice, engenders a blame culture and consquently threatens innovation. Self- regulation and peer review may not be a perfect system but at it is done by those who understand the nature of the task involved.

Ms Charlotte Drury

August 21. 2007 09:20

Having worked in the public sector for a while now, in both policy and practice, I see both bizarre micro-management and benign (?) neglect and wonder whether these are connected. Senior manager deal with complication rather than complexity and therefore become paralysed at the enormitity of a task that they see as highly complicated. They are then prone to managing the things that can be managed, especially since this is driven by performance indicators and targets set by WAG which encourages at best bean counting and at worst lying and manipulation of information to put a best gloss. staff are infantilised and therefore pass responsibility for themselves within the work context, to their managers, all of which contributes to a blame culture. It also encourages a 'certain kind of management. The neglect comes around areas that senior managers either completely misunderstand or do not see as important so they just let people get on with it, so long as it doesn't incur the wrath of WAG or local councillors etc. that is often where you find creativity and sometimes innovation. However the current structures militate against this.

re the tidy desk thing, have it messy and tell the cleaners you'll clean it yourself - let's be grown-ups!

Mr Gash Bhullar

August 28. 2007 17:00

Sorry Jean..I do realise I went off on one in my earlier comment.. its that phrase “Public Sector” that gets me right off track… anyway, now I see where the thread was going… can I say that there is a time and place for neat and tidiness and the levels that it is “enforced” (yes I use that word provocatively). For instance the operating theatre demands to be immaculately clean and tidy as the operations performed are difficult enough without the added stress of looking for the right equipment being in the right place, but you do not expect someone’s desk to be at that level of cleanliness as it is wasted effort. The problem is getting people to understand when it right to be strict and rigid versus using your own common sense (yes that rare commodity that is not allow to be present in the public sector).
By the way guys, would you mind revealing your picture to us or a picture that represents you by clicking the shadowed placeholder and going to www.gravatar.com