Friday, September 26, 2008

The word collaboration is used frequently, but no collaborations are described.

Every week, the administration sends everyone a single page newsletter from an organization called the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD). This week the headline is
COLLABORATION POWER: A RISING TIDE OF EXCELLENCE
The body of the article is an inspiring story of Hazard Community and Technical College and how they rose the tide of excellence by scheduling more frequent meetings and organizational development days. In describing a typical event, they mention that
The first 80% of the conversation focussed on answering the following exciting questions.
  • Who are we as an organization
  • What have we been that is excellent
etc etc.

The result
The senior leadership team responded with a progressive approach designed to maximize resources. Unwanted by necessary workforce reductions were tough on moral.
Etc. Etc.

2 comments:

Matt BK said...

You know, it's things like this that reinforce my desire to avoid working with other people. When they come together and say "the solution to our problems is to have more meetings," I hear "none of us is intelligent or ballsy enough to actually produce anything novel."

Don't mind me, I'm coming down with something.

Rob Helpy-Chalk said...

Isn't it dreadful? No one seems to like this attitude, yet it always takes over institutions.