Campbell Soup... in a basket

Seen Alastair Campbell's Diaries?

Campbell seems less a politician and more a hairdresser (primp here, slim-cut there...) And
success? The media swallow whatever look he presents, regardless...

So, spooned in the best Campbell Soup, here's a likely story:

'Management' was invented by consultants! And the proof? Here is a common opening
exchange between a consultant and staff in an organisation where the consultant has been
asked to help 'change the culture'.

Consultant: What's it like working here?

Staff: Alienating, unvalued, unheard...

Consultant: Why?

Staff: They -management- don't listen, don't care... it's terrible, we could go on...

Consultant: So what do you need? Assertiveness, more self managing, more control...?

Staff: No! We need a consultant, to tell it like we feel it!

Consultant: Where did you learn to be so helpless?

Now we have asked before on learndontlearn what is learning. However tricky to
identify, we sort of know it has got to be much more than busloads of facts, or how
celebrities like their chips. And now, a complication: is it learning even if we learn the
wrong things, particularly in organisations?

Just as staff have to do harder things to learn, so does AC. Maybe he should start with
learning that for teams to work effectively, egos are overheads. And while he
thinks he can get away with using Lads-mag language to describe women (degrees of 'ballsy' etc)
it's juvenile to think in it. In the end, listening to Campbell is like hearing a bagpipe solo: even
if it's just a minute, it seems to go on forever.

Looks like we need to get back to learning, whatever that is...

Comments

[Claudia]

Yes, learned helplessness in organisations may result from feeling you're not heard, no matter how loud you shout, and thus not valued. On the part of management it results from poor self esteem, i.e. I can't do it and I don't know how to. Hence we call in the consultant. But am I telling you anything you don't already know? And let's face it, you'd be out of work if organisational learned helplessness didn't exist!
And as for Campbell, interesting phenomenon, and your observations are spot on. But is he worth discussing? As a woman, I wouldn't give him the pleasure.
C.