Is it good to see new management ringing the changes? It always seems to be something of a doubled edged sword to me.

Take York City FC new manager Gary Mills. One of his first actions is to release two talented young players who have come through years of youth training with York City. Both have now been released without being given a chance to play for the senior team in the league, and what is worse Gary Mills hasn’t even seen them play a match! Well thought through, carefully considered, or just the start of clearing the desk without knowing what is really there.

Take our national management team (the government) who are racing through changes, some with dubious outcomes, just to show they are in charge. Possibly the most shocking is the decision by Francis Maud to axe various quangos. According to news reports at the time this is without knowing what it will cost to shut them down and without knowing if any money will be saved. Couldn’t they have found someone to do the job who has a clue? To be fair he did say it was a “work in progress” so let’s see what happens in the end.

In business we all see instances of bright new ideas being foisted upon teams without consultation. Inevitably the teams doing the jobs know where improvements and therefore savings can be made, but they seem to be rarely consulted by people who fully understand their answers.

We shouldn’t be surprised I suppose as it was ever thus. As the Roman General Caius Petronius said in AD 66, “We trained very hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up in teams, we would be re-organised. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by re-organising, and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, whilst producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation.” He was a clever bloke that Caius.

We really like to think we’ve progressed don’t we. Honestly, you’ve got to laugh!

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