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Annie and I performed a short comedy sketch yesterday (Sunday) at our Church.
The theme of the service was to celebrate the upcoming birth of Jesus and as part of that we played the parts of two Birmingham women of the 1950's. They were having a discussion around the kitchen table over a cup of tea.
Aggie (played by Annie) explained to Lil (played by Me) how she had been whisked back in time from 1953 to Bethlehem by Dr Who, to witness the birth of Jesus. Then Dr Who apparently took Aggie through time again to the future (2006) where Aggie was amazed to discover such things as telephones without wires, that even young children had all to themselves. She was gobsmacked!
As a highly respected and sober professional manager I would just like to say that this type of 'dressing up' on my part is done purely in the interests of entertainment and research :-)
Annie wrote a wonderful script and it seemed to go down well with the congregation.If you really have to you can see more pics by clicking here
If you are interested in taking a look at wedding pics click hereActually these photos were taken in a studio as Annie and I got dressed up again in our wedding gear a few days after our wedding to try and get some better pics than we managed to get on the day itself - 14th October. When you click on the link you can also view other photos of our wedding day.Enjoy .....
Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, is the grand old man of English football and I just wonder if he has pulled of another master stroke today.
The highly talented Henrik Larsson signed for Manchester United for three months from January to March. Larsson has played at the top level for many years and has always scored goals. He is now 35 years old and not looking for a long term deal. This may prove to be the final piece in the United team building as the fixtures pile up towards the end of the season.
United are currently top of the Premiership and next Wednesday they should reach the knock out stages of the European Champions League.
I hope I will re-visit this posting in May 2007 and be able to say the signing of Henrik Larsson was indeed an inspired decision.
There is an interesting discussion going on at Tom Peters Blog about modern management structures.
I worked my whole career until 2 years ago in a heavily ‘managed’ system - the National Health Service. There have always been numerous ‘layers’ of management in the NHS and two years on from leaving that environment I am convinced most of those layers are unnecessary.
My Simplicity principles give away my style - this is how I see it;
Simplicity Tip Number 1 - Staff at the front line know ALL the answers ALL the time.
Simplicity Tip Number 2 - If managers have a job at all in 2006 it is to make it easy for front line staff to do their job with freedom.
Simplicity Tip Number 3 - Give all the money – YES ALL THE MONEY to front line staff
The logical conclusion from my principles means giving more responsibility to front line staff and managers having to justify their existence.
In my experience, the staff at the front line are almost always frustrated by management processes that are designed, it seems to me, to prevent front line staff showing any responsibility, imagination or creativity.
I am not calling for anarchy – although sometimes it feels that way. Surely we have moved away from a ‘heavily managed’ world in any sort of business setting in 2006.
Give people at the front line the power – PLEASE!!!
