Traditional Wisdom LO9157

pbm8@tutor.open.ac.uk
Thu, 15 Aug 96 22:15:36 BST

Replying to LO9060 --

Debbie Broome's comments on Ben Comptons message struck a chord.

>I think we need to appreciate that both employees and managers are
>struggling to define new responsibilities in the workplace. In a sense,
>each group is enabling the other to perform in exactly the same manner
>and it takes a lot of courage to jump into another way of doing
>business.

I am an Environmental Health Manager working in a distict Council on the
South Coast of England. I have two teams: one specialising in Health and
Safety and one in Food Safety. Both teams include specialists and
technical advisers. Their area of work becomes ever more complex as laws
change, customer demands quicken and the organisation strugles to respond.
So....... I have noticed that my role has changed from that of being "the
expert" well versed in the technical, legal and social aspects of the work
- advising my colleagues, to.... being "trained up" by my team - all
recognising that the breadth and complexity of our work makes it
impossible for me keep up with everything. There is little if any tension
in this change.

What set me thinking is that I "rose through the ranks" by training in
these technical areas and becoming an "expert" and I achieved the
attention of managers who judged me fit for promotion because of this
expertise. Other skills emerged or were honed as my promotions continued.
I think that as a result of our tacit acceptance of the change (team
members and myself) from "expert" to "trained up", which was emergent
rather than deliberate, I have had to be more open to advice, had to test
the assumptions behind this advice thus, in part, creating the atmosphere
whereby there is a degree more comfort in consensus. Having just read
Clyde Howell's excellent contribution (LO9074 - learning the basics) I
wonder how much of the teams acceptance of the change is because they know
that I have been a foot soldier?

In case the above sounds all too cosy let me assure you that I have the
normal quota of people and team problems, games playing, scarcity of
resources, etc. etc...
--

Paul Murphy
pbm8@open.ac.uk
"They are poor explorers who think there is no land
when all they can see is sea."

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