Frank Kalder wrote:
>>
> Unfortunately, that appears to be true, too.
> It's sort of DIALECTICS.
> ;)
Do you think they really engage in that. It seems to me that perhaps
sometimes they are affected by "group think" ie pressure from the
group to go in a certain direction, so much so that the potential for
original thought is suppressed.
>>>
>>>> I see this phenomenon on my job(s) to a smaller extent with so called
>>>> paid consultants who I want to slap in the face when they make people
>>>> pay for their providing opinions on the bleeding obvious.
>>>>
>>>> I would probably roll my eyes when a think tanker provides an opinion
>>>> on the obvious
>>>>
>>>> (don't tell me that you work for one please)
>>>>
>>>
>>> Wow, 'face slaps'!
>>
>> If your face is slapped then you must be telling me that you work for
>> one!
>>
ok Frank, you will have to give me time to locate the book and read it.
I am a bit on the side of busy, just having rented my new place
(ouch$) but it will be the perfect place nonetheless. So next step is
to totally pack and clean.
I promise to return to this book.
However, my opinions are primarily guided by personal experience and
frustrations.
>
> In globally operating corporations the top functional staff and the
> division heads meet yearly or biannually in an exclusive ambience
> [mostly in splendid resort areas] to brainstorm and ponder on the
> updating of the CORPORATE STRATEGY to be then approved by the board of
> directors.
I have actually attended these types of meetings.
There are good things and bad things about this.
Briefly, good things: networking for the attendees, they may create
powerful political blocs and at least consensus that may help them get
work done in the future.
That's the politically correct line. It;s really viewed by the
participants as an opportunity for "face time"
That means that they believe that one's work can be more appreciated or
at least attention be directed to their work. And that such
appreciation and attention by others and especially top level people
will inevitably translate into a promotion.
Bad things: no one does any real work at these things. Nothing new is
done. Presentations are rehashed.
This is not exclusively true. Sometimes these meetings result in
important communications regarding a direction the organization will
take, and the announcement is secret and the employees are expected to
return and prepare the organization for the change.
That's rare. But when this happens, clearly it is not a meeting to
brainstorm, it's a meeting to force a new vision on the employees.
Other bad things -- amusing that with all the technology that is
purchased allegedly to help defray the costs of such meetings, that
organizations still meet and thus spend valuable resources that were
supposed to have been saved by use of the technology.
Other bad things -- meetings are not as productive as alleged for the
reasons I mention, primiarly as they are seen as methods of personal
promotion hiding behind supposedly organizational need. Thus, big
resource use that is absorbed by taxpayers, stockholders or consumers,
depending on the type of organization described.
These are my very fast very surface level comments.
>
>>> But I don't get the context or a precise idea
>>> of what you really mean with that sentence ending "bleeding
>>> obvious".
>>
>> bleeding obvious is more of a Britishism. They seem to put the word
>> bleeding in sentences for emphasis where they might ordinarily put the
>> word very. It's a bit of a crude common way of expressing that was
>> once considered almost cursing, but lately it seems that it is as
>> excepted as saying damn or hell.
>>
> Yeah, thanks for this background.
>
>> Just pretend that I said very obvious.
>> I can't tell you how many times over the past years in my stint in DC,
>> I was exposed to consultants who provided reports. It amazed me how
>> much they charged and all they did was either compile what we said to
>> them and put it in a powerpoint. Or, as the formal product in the
>> form of "advice" they would repeat information available to anyone
>> anywhere just by googling or picking up a magazine. Sure I am happy
>> they are employed and have nice jobs and can raise their families. But
>> why the heck is there not one creative person out there telling people
>> something creative, rather than repeat status quo. I don't think it is
>> a wise way for an organization to spend money to pay for rehashed ideas
>> that they already know of.
>>
> Yes, I'm aware of that type of phenomenon.
>>
> Top consultants such as McKinsey or Boston Consulting Group (BCG) are
> doing bleeding better, though.
>
:)
Ok, then they need to hire me.
I guess I never mentioned that in addition to my other skills that you
already know of I am also an attorney.
>> I don't think I can put my hand on the article right now, but a friend
>> once sent me one that explained that consultant's powerpoints were to
>> blame for the Challenger disaster -- the NASA crash -- because of the
>> way this tool presents and in fact glosses over information.
>>
> Oh :(
>
> _Sitting Habits_
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "has just escaped from a maximum security prison for criminally insane
>>>>>> furniture,"--Magic for Benners, Kelly Link, describing a couch
>>>>>>
>>>>> Sitting on pillows on the floor might help! ;) More on Kelly:
>>>>>
www.kellylink.net>>>>
>>>> you've already warned me of the dangers of sitting on the floor without
>>>> pillow protection.
>>>> I spurn this advice!@!!!!
>>>>
>>> I assume your exaggerated spurning is meant as a joke :)
>>
>> yes
>>
>>> I just recalled your preferred sitting arrangements. Whether pillows or
>>> not - I didn't remember in particular. Perhaps you better like to
>>> sit on a wooden floor or rather on a carpet?
>>
>> Carpet!!!
>>
> ((: ~~~ flying or magic carpet ~~~ :))
o would that I could.
My father just yelled at me yesteday about this very subject.
YOU NEED TABLES AND CHAIRS HE SAID.
I SAID OK CHAIRS BUT WHY A TABLE.
(he's hard of hearing remember?)
BECAUSE YOU NEED TO EAT AT THE TABLE.
WHY??????
BECAUSE YOU DO!!!!
>
>
> _Middle East_
>
>> I forgot to mention the news from yesterday. Senator Murtha, the first
>> republican senator to take a stand against the Iraq war, and also a
>> former soldier, is now being bludgeoned in the media for being "dirty".
>> To some extent, it's got to do with a decades old bribery charge in a
>> sting operation by FBI called Abscam. He was unindicted so using this
>> as a basis for disliking him or his policies is interesting. Wondering
>> why the media is NOW bringing it up rather back when Murtha first spoke
>> out.
>>
> I won't know either (just wondering, too).
>
> Excerpt: »"Gaza is being intentionally kept on artificial respiration,
> and the population is suffering from collective depression," said
> Médecins du Monde.«
>
> ...Ha!...
pulling out the calculator
o good! I'll be really old and won't care if I am alive.
mk5000
by Kirpal Singh
Do you start by telling
what your name is?
or what your occupation is?
Is that really you?
Or do race and religion matter more than your nationality?
I will start with my little toe
it is a bit crooked
for that,I limp a little
and this scar on the upper lip?
that will never make me anything closer to Angelina Jolie
THAT I received when quarelling with my little sister
becos' she took my mom's love
away from me
I will also begin with these eyes
half Chinese half Afghan
which will make them 4 generations old
the mind travels like a
space shuttle
going back and forth
planet Earth.
And I will keep searching
for ways to
introduce me.
