Catholic Church Syndrome

 

I call it the Catholic Church Syndrome but the pattern appears in business and politics Essentially, it is a halfway attempt at democracy. 

"Thank you for filling in the survey said Fr. Moore.” 

It was six weeks before Christmas and the Parish Council with the assistance from the Knights of St. Columbus had prepared a survey asking if celebrating the principal Christmas Mass earlier say at 6pm or 8pm instead of midnight would be preferred. Of course there had been talk for years that a midnight service was disruptive in people’s lives but the cherubic image of the Church at 11:50pm even if it meant standing was hard to forsake until the heretical notion of fast tracking time zones began to prevail. This Parish Council was strong since two others vetoed the idea or rather did not want to approach 78 year old Fr. Moore who was probably going to made up into a Canon next year by Bishop Augustine. The Knights of St. Columbus gave legitimacy to the undertaking.

“The results are overwhelming in favour of celebrating the main Christmas service at 6pm and not 8pm . However we will continue as we have always done at mid-night.”

A bit like setting sail for the Island of Democracy but coming about at the harbour’s 50 metre buoy. What happened to consultancy and collaborative management approaches? In the world of business and in politics often a decision has been made before people’s opinions are solicited. An associate in Ottawa remarked that he knew about the closures of the manned lighthouses two years before the furore and protests took place. Watch out for friends and business associates that solicit your opinion but only want to hear their idea reinforced! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A silly executive decision

                           A silly executive decision              It was a successful respected electronic company that I frequently visited. The founder was chairman of the board and went to work  everyday. There was a president who had been with the company from the early days. Like most companies there was folklore and gossip. The gossip was the president sole role was to prevent the founder “ putting his fingers in the pie.”and causing chaos. The founder had a son who had an impressive title which I did not understand. The spoken  word was the son worked very hard and on my visits to the company he was visible. I also recall he was often paged inferring that he was some where in the company solving problems and was in demand by important people. The founder passed away and everyone was sad. The president decided to retire citing it was time to leave. A new president arrived a few months later presumably  after an exhaustive search. I heard the Lionsgate Films studios casting agenc
Read more

Finding the New Sales Person

  Finding the     Right Sales Person By John Joyce    It was agreed by the  vice- president of sales and marketing, and the sales manager that there was a need for a new sales person. One of the territories. Europe,  was doing well. Too well, according to Bob Brigs the sales manager. They were   going to split it.  Reduce the work load of the present sales person, and of course reduce their earnings as they were on a sliding commission. Last year the sales person earned more than Bob Brigs. They were gathered in vice president’s office, Mark Davis. Sports photographs adorned the walls. Photographs of Mark winning races cycling kayaking and snow shoeing. Head of Human Resources,  L.V.Sugget,  sat in the corner making notes and promised to produce four or five strong candidates for this position. Mark added that an application engineer to assist the salesforce would be something to consider. # Hartley Electronics designed  and manufactured oscillators and data loggers. Oscillators were  
Read more

House keeping in Silicon Valley

Paul Tully saw the woman from the swimming pool.   She had a clipboard, keys and walked from door to door, three floors above him with 17 steps between floors.   Sometimes she knocked at the doors and other times she walked past.   She wore a pink housecoat.   The pink was similar to the hybrid roses near the pool, next to the white foxgloves.   The housekeeping lady knocked at his door.    Not a good sign,  he thought.   He wanted to stay at least another night but it appeared he  was on the departure list.   Three children carrying green towels ran past the woman.   He clambered out of the heated pool.   It was exciting swimming outside in the morning after going for a run, especially with palm trees around.   He had to remind himself he was not here on vacation but for business.   He looked up, saw and heard an aeroplane, circling to land at nearby San Jose airport.    Paul was the Hotel Reye, Sunnyvale, California, 40 miles south of San Francisco.   Yahoo, Applied Micro Devices and
Read more