‽istis ponders
volunteering, expertise and knowing where and how to tap (weekending April 27th 2024)
Various themes this weekending; more or probably less connected, I suspect...
Volunteering
opportunities at our local library/information community hub have been pondered
this week, with some qualms as unpaid volunteers are sought seemingly to supplement
what may be an under-staffed/under-funded public service. An opportunity for much-needed
income to a family or families, denied?[i]
‽istis has also
been pondering expertise, talking with a friend contemplating retirement but expressing
some anxiety about perhaps being a little bit bored in the future. We talked
about the many, many charities and not-for-profit organisations that could
benefit from the great expertise of someone coming out of a long and successful
career in accountancy/tax/financial governance. An opportunity for many people
to benefit from expertise shared?
And ‽istis is
reminded of a ‘story’ with variations, but one version of which perhaps goes
like this:
· A huge industrial plant grinds to a halt.
· An engineer is called.
· Some moments are spent contemplating the problem.
· A small hammer is produced.
· A particular component receives a single, small tap - and everything fires up again.
· An invoice is sent: £1,000.
· It is challenged: a £1,000 fee for a few moments work?
· An itemised bill is demanded.
· Labour: £1.
· Knowing where to tap: £999
So ‽istis
has wondered: What price - expertise?
What value - opportunities to acquire it and share it? To what, where and for
what purpose might it be applied?
And two
other ‘things’ have made an impression this week and they may be sort of
related to the weekending’s themes…
One is to do
with lessons from research and a ‘tweet’ or posting on ‘X’ in an always
interesting, I reckon, series from Helen Bevan (@HelenBevan: Professor of
Practice in Health & Care Improvement at Warwick Business School); near
verbatim:
·
Evidence
from research @BainandCompany
·
Only
12% of big change programmes produce lasting results.
·
But
six ‘good practices’ ideas seem to increase greatly the likelihood of success for
large scale change strategies:
1) Treat
transformation as a continuous process rather than a discrete programme
2) Build it
into the operating rhythm of the organisation
3)
Explicitly manage energy for change - sequence changes to avoid widespread
organisational fatigue
4) Use
aspirations, not benchmarks, to set goals - top-down data driven mandates can
crush transformational thinking
5) Adopt a
“middle-out”, rather than "top down" approach
6) Allow
sufficient funding (in the research, nearly every failed transformation wasn't
funded properly)[ii]
And ‽istis wonders how the strategic, operational and ‘in practice’ achievements of a business, a charity, a community, a government or an international initiative might be enhanced by applying these ‘good practices’? What ‘big change’ programmes and processes might benefit from these lessons about where and how to ‘tap’ – including those programmes and processes dominating the news at the moment even those that may have ground to a halt, such as a peace process…‽
The second ‘thing’ also presented itself via social media; a clip from a speech by Deshauna Barber[iii] - beauty pageant titleholder (including Miss USA), motivational speaker, and United States Army Reserve captain:
“Do not fear failure, but be terrified of regret.”
And ‽istis will continue to wonder, voluntarily, what might happen if such a message were to be taken to heart by those seeking big change through programmes and processes dominating the news at the moment even those that may have ground to a halt, such as a peace process…‽
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this
week’s theme and past blog entries to be found on X/Twitter with replies,
retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very
opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders.
X/Twitter ‘follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
[i]
And ‽istis has long had concerns at the idea of community cafés –
often church ones it seems – competing with, maybe under-cutting and taking
business away from local enterprises that pay wages, pay suppliers, pay business
rates, pay taxes, create jobs, etc.
[ii] https://hbr.org/2024/05/transformations-that-work.
Via @HarvardBiz
[iii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w71aDaGAtHs
& https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deshauna_Barber
