Knowing when to walk away

Evidenced by the recent backlash against Labor in the Victorian Elections, it appears that the people want change. Long term Labor Governments are “on the nose”.  Anna Bligh is on the nose, Kristina Keneally & NSW Labor in general are also on the nose. Their next elections don’t bode well for them.

Both Anna and Kristina have come in at the end of a very long period of Labor government. Kristina got the poison chalice and the folk of Queensland appear to be tired so very tired of Labor. But what of Mike Rann? No doubt he believes he has a goal to drive South Australia into the future, following his own grand plan. Feeling as though he was annointed by Saint Don Dunstan (may he rest in peace), nothing will stop him from leading the state forth. But there’s a shelf life for everything and everyone. There comes a time when stepping aside and letting in  someone with fresh ideas. Or is it all about breaking the record set by Bob Carr? Surely not.

Mr Rann is exhibiting such vanity ahead of the both the State’s and Labor’s interests – something akin to Howard in his last years. Instead of trying to break Bob Carr’s record, he should learn from Bob Carr’s actions by stepping aside. In my opinion, he should have stepped down prior to the last election. If arguments by the unions, the press or the electorate don’t change his mind, maybe a tempter of a better life post politics?

A personal appeal to Mike Rann

Imagine, Mr Rann, your retirement in the Italian countryside, writing epistles & tomes at your leisure. How much nicer would that be than being run out of office by an infuriated electorate? And wouldn’t stepping aside to let some fresher minds have a go be better for the party? By fresh, I don’t mean Kevin Foley. He may have been an effective parliamentarian, but his jackboot style and now, ineffective management of the Treasury is more on the nose to the public than you.

Why Glasnozt?

Image via Wikipedia

I have a reputation at work for being always hungry for information and impatient with internal communication. Frankly, I can’t stand not knowing. I don’t envy those who trundle along, happy to wait for information to be delivered to them in whatever form the deliverer decides. I know ignorance is supposed to be bliss, but to be inside an information free zone is my idea of hell.

I’ve recently tracked the source of this hunger to a few key events in my life.

The first major event:

1983 Year 12 Camp – Victor Harbor

Before mobile phones and the Internet, and TV & radio providing the only information, real news from our respective worlds was reduced to a minimum. Until word got out that there were bushfires spreading throughout the Adelaide Hills which were to become known as the Ash Wednesday fires. While country based teachers were allowed to go home, we students were plunged into a media blackout. News via all media was banned – to keep us from becoming upset.

1998 – Needs to know basis

I found myself working under a fascist. She seemed friendly enough, but then she started coming out with rascist jokes that would curl even Pauline Hanson‘s hair. That was bad enough. It was worse when I’d clearly asked her not to tell me the jokes only to have her persist. Anyway, that’s not the reason why this point in time is mentioned. It’s because, in her previous working life, she’d been an intelligence officer for one of the armed services. Her training had given her a skewed perspective on communication. When she found out that my uncle was one of the Balibo Five, asked me if I knew how they died and then gave me a knowing look (I know but I won’t tell you). Over the days, weeks and months I worked with this person, she would drip feed or deny me information using the “needs to know basis” formula. Even outcomes of  meetings were based on this formula. It essentially gave her power over me and frankly, drove me around the twist.

1999 – Change Management

I was the Coordinator to a Change Management project. Change Management done badly is akin to a propaganda campaign, carried out by management to ensure a smooth transition from what was to what’s coming. It ignores human nature or at the very least denies its expression.  Okay, perhaps it can be done well. I’m yet to see it.

This project was for a small company that had been bought out by a huge company. They’d already worked through all the processes and conducted a Supply Chain re-engineering Project. The employees were clearly nervous about what was to come. Recruitment had been stopped and temporary employees were brought in (and hated). But the Change Management project rolled along. Focus groups, workshops, training sessions and more were added to the already busy days of the employees. Naysayers were given stern talkings to and decried as fear mongers. Part of my job was to allay the fears. When people nervously predicted that everything would be shut down and moved to Melbourne, it was I who soothed their worried brows and told them it just wasn’t true. It turns out everyone, including me, was a sucker. Six months after I left that job, I bumped into one of my former colleagues and was told that, indeed, the whole place was shut down and relocated to Melbourne.

2001 – News blackout

11 September 2001. I’d watched the buildings crumble before my very eyes via Channel 9 the previous night. I listened to the news on the car radio, tears streaming as I drove in to work. Everyone, absolutely everyone wanted to know what was happening, what had happened, why it happened. News websites were accessed across the organisation – the BBC being one of the better sources of information. But by the next day, IT had blocked all access to news sites. I suppose we could have listened to the radio, but radio has its limitations. Looking back, I can see that internet access in 2001 was meagre compared to now.  But at the time, that information was like oxygen. We needed to understand. We needed information. And they cut supply.

Now

I must write very carefully. There are such things as career limiting moves (CLM). Management, and from my experience this means management in many organisations, not just mine, like to, well, manage information flows. This information management becomes habit-forming. Management also hate – HATE – the grapevine. But there’s your trouble. In the absence of real information, speculation and rumour WILL fill the void. Despite the assertions of “Who Moved my Cheese“, employees are not simple-minded rats. With an open flow of communication, we will decide what’s important and what’s not. To hold off information until the very last “i” is dotted and “t” is crossed is counter productive. Draft versions of information are perfectly fine – especially if marked DRAFT boldly throughout the content. With a management approach to information very much along the lines of “needs to know”, my colleagues and I now have a standardized greeting of “so, what do you know?”. My suggestion to management is: open up communication, manage the reaction. It might be that with open communication, perhaps over time, the reactions will become so that little management is required.

A little trite?

Compared to those brave souls around the world who speak up against oppression, facing imprisonment or sometimes, death, my fight for information seems a little trite. I read about Zarganar, a Burmese comedian who is in prison for 35 years, who can only see two members of his family during allotted times, but is still writing jokes. So I understand that my fight to have the results of the employee opinion survey to be released appears lame compared. In this comfortable life we lead, we have the luxury of choosing our battles and this is mine.

to be continued…