The Blind Spot – A Short Story

[…]
And my heart owns a doubt
Whether ’tis in us to arise with day
And save ourselves unaided.
Robert Frost, Storm fear (1913)

Early in the morning, Squad N010 arrived on the beach. The weather was very windy and cloudy, the sky looked pale and a pungent, pervading smell of rotten algae made even more unpleasant the fact of being in that place at that hour. Gatekeepers – as squad members were usually called – were not cowards. On the contrary, they were determined to accomplish their duty till the very end. Nevertheless, over the previous weeks many of them had continuously seesawed between eagerness and terror – both emotions being so powerful to almost paralyze their minds.

The Squad Captain, Erskyin Kolbahrt, ordered a quick inspection of the shore to make sure that all landmarks stones were in place. It was essential that every member of the team knew exactly where to position himself at the agreed hour. Kolbahrt, by the way, did not feel very well – his mind being still affected by the long-term symptoms of the Beta Syndrome he had contracted a few months earlier.

Management Portfolio / Closing the loop. Reflect to learn, and learn to reflect (and act)

Whenever experience teaches us something, it is because we have had the time and the ability to reflect on it. What the American philosopher and psychologist John Dewey (1859-1952) observed about experience could be claimed to be true also for history, both collective and individual – after all, experience may be considered as a personal story which brings some useful meanings to our life. If learning is the outcome of reflecting, reflecting on learning is an effective way to come full circle and put us in front of a mirror. What do we see? I think that true learning always entails the ability of establishing new or different relations among things – in the same way our brain creates new connections (axons) among neurons. This process is vertical and horizontal at the same time, since depth and extension – both essential to knowledge – feed each other in a virtuous circle.

As pointed out by Schank (1990), stories play a relevant role in learning: and they do it precisely because of their ability to convey and link contents and meanings in a structured way that, by fostering our emotional involvement, makes learning much more pleasant and easier. It is not surprising to discover that two New Zealander educators, Janice McDrury and Maxine Alterio (2002), have written a book which theorizes the use of storytelling as a learning tool supporting reflective learning processes.

Management portfolio / The Thoughtful and the Pragmatic: John B. Howard’s managerial wisdom

“You never hire the cv, you hire the person”. This is a witty aphorism by John B. Howard, Librarian at University College Dublin, which offers a significant glimpse of his way of viewing the world. The man is brilliant without being pretentious, and during his most recent lecture at UCD he showed the ability to combine the mastery of many fields of human knowledge with a solid, many-sided working experience. In other words, he is certainly not the kind of person who may devote herself to a theoretical construction to the point of losing touch with reality: I guess there would no place for him on the weird flying island of Laputa.

Dr. Howard reminded his audience that management, to be effective, must be well grounded in the real world – a world that needs to be observed and understood as best as one possibly can. Reality requires to cope with real people, and real people – like it or not – are flawed on many levels (“Everyone is twelve” is another provoking Howard’s aphorism). If a manager forgets it, a number of problems are likely to be overlooked, especially when organizations must face radical changes and workers are not ready to cope with them. Over his long career, Dr. Howard has managed a few very challenging situations, and I think his dual approach – thoughtful as well as pragmatic – has helped him to deal successfully with them.

Management portfolio / Once upon a time: good narratives for better libraries

Why do we like good stories? Because, in many ways, they have the gift to make us feel better. Perhaps, their broadest and most relevant effect is sense-making of life. We need good stories and narratives to improve the comprehension of ourselves and of the world we live in. Brophy (2007) addressed a very significant point when he prompted libraries to use both Evidence and Narrative Based Practice to improve the quality of their services. By employing the best available evidence offered by research literature, a library can certainly found its decisions on a more solid basis; nevertheless, the combination between objective data and subjective narratives may represent a step further because “we are more likely to find meaning in the telling of how things have been experienced by others than in the formality of arid statistics and measures” (Brophy, 2007, p. 156).

In other words, numbers are essential, but qualitative factors like personal experiences allow to connect with people in a way that can really make the difference. Narrative Based Practice could also help libraries to show their value to stakeholders and to focus more on customers as suggested by Holt (2005), who claimed the necessity of “fighting back” against declining funding. In the very same direction, Calvert & Goulding (2015) pointed out the potential relevance of gathering narratives from patrons to communicate libraries’ worth in a more interesting manner.

Management portfolio / Organizations, as life, are made of crystal and smoke

In its most sophisticated expressions, biological life generates very complex organisms. If it wants to work properly, an organism must strike a balance between inner control and environmental adaptation, continuity and interruption, rigidity and flexibility. Human organizations, on different scales, do struggle to individuate the same delicate balance. On this topic, Weick (2006) offered some thoughtful reflections by reminding that every organization must cope with its actual boundaries: crystal and smoke. I do think this is a duality essential to understand organizational and managerial problems, an interpretive key which can shed light on many central issues of these disciplines.

The management theories developed over the last century – as well outlined by Evans and Alire (2013) – show clearly that the way of considering organizations and their governance has gradually shifted from a very rigid approach (scientific management) to a very flexible one (composite theories): as social, economic and political systems change, organizations transform themselves by following a pattern of mutual influence. In our post-modern era, it is not surprising at all to discover that management is mainly considered as an “art” (far from science) and that managers are using a wide-ranged kit of approaches: it is simply a mirror of what is going on – to quote the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman – in a society quickly become “liquid”.

Management portfolio / Darwinian Management

Directed by James Foley and written by playwriter David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) follows the events involving a team of real estate American salesmen. Since they are badly under-performing, the owners of the company they work for ask a sales manager (Blake, played by Alec Baldwin in a cameo which has become quite famous) to visit them in order to overcome the very problematic situation.

As a manager, Blake follows a ruthless and aggressive approach that is meant to motivate people by scaring them. It is all about efficiency, results and money: if you do not get it, you are a loser, hence nothing – just shit. Within such a scheme, only two options are contemplated: you either reach what you have been asked for, or you are fired. This “black & white” management style is deeply rooted in the Darwinian principle of natural selection: if you are not able to adapt (i.e. accepting the rules, bearing the pressure and reaching your goals), you simply die (society will label you as a loser). This is also a basic rule of Capitalism in its purest essence: free competition is (should be) requested to selecting the best ones and eliminating market inefficiencies. Maybe merciless, but all in all fair.