writing to make sense of things

The sublime Mario Zhekov (1898-1955) - only Nicolas Tanev and Z Boyadjiev surpass him in the Bulgarian pantheon. But he is my favourite - and I boast one of his paintings.

God (like Kanter) had 10 Commandments – Stephen Covey identified 7 “habits” of effective people. Osborne has 5 strategies for “banishing bureaucracy”[1]. At the other end of the scale Robert Greene has 48 laws of power and Hood and Jackson identified no fewer than 99 different prescriptions and rationales for better public management[2] which have been used over the centuries - each of which has its equally plausible opposite.
The format of prescriptions is evidently a good one – at the very least in disciplining the thoughts of the writer. But seven-ten prescriptions, however, seem to be as many as people can handle.

I do not know at this stage what do’s and don’ts will emerge from the reflections I'm drafting about the lessons from my work of the past 40 years.

For me writing is not initially about communications – but rather organising thought. I think I know something - but it becomes evident during writing that there are gaps and inconsistencies in my thinking. There’s a very wise saying that, “if you want to learn about a subject, write a book about it”. One of the mistakes I made early on in my life was to think that, if I read enough books, I would absorb knowledge. But first you have the questions.....

Another thing about writing and books is that it is contextual. At University, I initially found it difficult to read Hobbes “Leviathan” but, when I understood more about the times in which it was written, I became more interested. It’s the same for me about poetry – I wish there were more comments from the poets about the context in which they had written these tight, concentrated stanzas.

That is why, in Part I of my "Reflections on 40 years of fighting bureaucracy", I first sketch in the context – not only the particular roles I was playing but the intellectual currents which affected me.
I have identified three key stages[3] – the initial encounter with bureaucracy and politics and the shaping of a reform position (1968-1974); the period of “strategic leadership (1974-1991); and “nomadic consultancy” (1991 - the present).
The focus for the first 2 stages was a combination of “social exclusion” and “managing change” – at a time when these were not the disciplines they have become. I quickly saw how deadly party government was - and, with the help of community workers and their thinking, "went native". Curiously, however, that removed me from the faction fighting which was the essence of the Labour party then - I was seen as belonging to no faction and therefore a good second vote in internal elections to positions of power. For 18 years I therefore triumphed in the bi-ennial elections to the key postion of Group Secretary - and had my pick of positions.

For the last 2 decades, the focus of my work has been more generally that of “building administrative capacity” – of state bodies in “transition countries”. And, again, I was in at the beginning of a venture for which there were not then the writings and tools apparently now available. For example a paper on public sector reform on a website recently established by the EC - http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/concept-paper-public-sector-reform-introduction
Also on the website is a useful paper on capacity development

For each stage, the draft paper on my website describes context and events - and then some lessons are drawn. Generally these are the lessons I felt at the time – as reflected in a piece of writing.
I notice that the text is fairly personal initially – but becomes less so from 1990 when my role changed from being an “insider” to an “outsider”. Although I consider that I have always been a bit of an outsider! I have always been inter-disciplinary – working in no-man’s lands[4], building bridges - but remember vividly the central European joke about bridges – “in peacetime, horses shit on them - and, in war-time, they get blown up!”

Part I uses the language in which the various issues of social exclusion, community development, managing change, capacity building are normally discussed. Part II tries to see the commonalities of these disparate languages. I remember being puzzled in the 1970s by the separate path education and social work people in the UK took to the discovery of the importance of the social process of learning – with two completely different (and rival) disciplines (community work; and community education) being established.

[1] in Banishing Bureaucracy; the five strategies for reinventing government (Addison 1997)
[2] in Administrative Argument (Aldershot 1991)
[3] There are supposed to be seven stages to life! See also Bridges (Transitions) etc
[4] the social scientists in the Tavistock Institute coined the phrase "reticulists" for those of us who straddled the boundaries of party, NGO and academia....

Brecht and Candide

an uzbek painting

One of my favourite poems has been Brecht’s “In Praise of doubt”

Deafened by commends, examined
For his fitness to fight by bearded doctors,
inspected by resplendent creatures with golden insignia,

admonished by solemn clerics who throw at him a book written by God Himself
Instructed by impatient schoolmasters, stands the poor man and is told
That the world is the best of worlds and that the hole
In the roof of his hovel was planned
by God in person
Truly he finds it hard
To doubt the world

There are the thoughtless who never doubt
Their digestion is splendid, their judgement infallible
They don’t believe in the facts,
they believe only in themselves
When it comes to the point
The facts must go by the board. Their patience with themselves
Is boundless. To arguments
They listen with the ear of a police spy.

The thoughtless who never doubt
Meet the thoughtful who never act
They doubt, not in order to come to a decision but
To avoid a decision. Their heads
They use only for shaking. With anxious faces
They warn the crews
of sinking ships that water is dangerous....

You who are a leader
of men, do not forget
That you are that because you doubted other leaders
So allow the led
Their right to doubt

The "best of worlds" reminds one of Voltaire's Candide - or rather the Panglossian philosophy which the book derides. In our post-modernistic hubris, it'seasy to forget that so much of what we think are profound new insights have been said before - and in a better way (see the Eliot quotes in the previous post). Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes" remains for me one of the most inspiring stories (about groupthink) - and Tolstoy's fable "Three Questions" about the importance of living in the present. I was amazed to find that theme in Marcus Aurelius' Meditations! Perhaps, instead of drafting my own lessons, I should simply quote from these older texts....??

O lucky man!

An Uzbek graphic

"O Lucky man!" was a left-wing British film of the 1970s with a great theme song by Alan Price. I consider myself a fortunate man – given opportunities to take part in the mysteries of governing at an early age and not succumbing to cynicism. Essentially – I suspect – because I’ve played several professional roles since I left university – 17 years teaching (latterly in urban management) overlapping with 22 years of strategic leadership in first local and then regional government; and, finally, 19 years of consultancy to governments and state bodies of the transition countries of central Europe and central Asia. And, in each of these roles, I’ve faced conundra such as -
- what can government systems realistically do to deal with the huge problem of social exclusion?
- whether a new type of public management can be created which is more sensitive to citizen needs
- the role of external adviser in countries trying to create pluralist systems

Since 1970 I’ve tried to make sense of the challenges I’ve been involved with in various countries by writing about them – relating the various projects to the wider literature in the field – and generally being lucky enough to have the results published. This way I have certain “reality checks” on the way I was seeing and thinking about things along the way.

But we have a saying - “Those who can, do – those who can’t, teach”. And it’s certainly true that leaders of organisations do not make good witnesses about the whys and wherefores of the business they’re in. Most political and business autobiographies are shallow and self-serving. Even with the best of intentions, it seems almost impossible for an active executive to distance himself from the events which (s)he’s been involved in to be able to explain properly events – let alone draw out general lessons which can help others.
And, on the other side, can the teachers actually teach? Academic books and articles about the reform of government have churned from the press in ever larger numbers over the last 50 years. Do they tell a convincing story? More to the point, do they actually help the aspiring reformer? Or do they, rather, confuse him and her – whether by style, length or complexity? Indeed, how many of them are actually written to help the reformer – as distinct from making an academic reputation? And quite a few give the sort of directions an Irishman is famed for giving some tourists who stopped to find the way – “Sure and if were you, I widna start from here!”

what’s the question?
In the first 20 years of my work (in Scotland), my questions related to structures of power in local government – between officials, politicians and community activists. How could we structure better dialogue to produce results for marginalised groups? Some of the answers I felt I had by the mid 1990s can be found at section 6 below. I was, however, fighting against the tide in Thatcher Britain – whose agenda for change was rather more brutal. Truth be told, I had some sympathies for her approach – there was too much complacency in the various professions but she did throw the baby out with the bathwater....I sometime say that I was a political refugee – from Thatcher’s Britain – since she was emasculating the local government system to which I was committed (if ever critical) and I was happy to accept an invitation in 1990 from the Head of WHO (European Public Health) to help WHO try to build constituencies for reform in public health in the newly-liberated countries of central and east Europe.

In the last 20 years, the questions for me have been even more fundamental – how to create a language for reform? I have, since 1991, been living and working in countries where English was a foreign language; and in which there were few shared professional concepts. To those, however, who argued that I could not understand the local context I simply replied that I recognised so well the bureaucratic syndrome from what I had seen and worked through in the West of Scotland in the 1970s. In that sense, my life has been a fight against bureaucracy. My first book was written to throw light on the workings of the new system of Scottish local government in 1976 – it was called “The Search of Democracy”. It’s sad that – 30 years on – people seem still to be looking for it!
For the longer draft, of which this is the opening section, see "key papers" on my website 

snow

Less than 5 months after the last heavy snow, it's back! It's not quite as thick as shown here but this gives an idea of what it will be like within a few weeks here at 1,300 metres.
The weather broke while we were in Sofia - a superb run down from Bucharest on Sunday with the sun blazing down. I thought of giving Sofia a miss and driving another 5 hours to Thassos on the Aegian for swim! We ate in the open air on Sunday evening - and walked happily on Monday - through to after midnight. But during the night, the wind rose and the temperature dropped to zero!! But the drive back was good - sorry to leave Bulgaria which we love so much. Both nights we dined with friends....

close to nature

Difficult to find an image which can convey the beauty of this place - at this time.
But living close to nature is... back-breaking. For example heating - no easy turn of a switch. You need to find and order wood; transport, store and protect it; cut it; keep the power saw maintained; carry the logs to the boiler; make the fire; oversee the dials which are like ParaHanda's Puffer; fill the logs every 6 hours; clean, clean and clean.....endless....No wonder I cheat - and use the electric heater whenever I can get away with it

two new paintings

I'm delighted to announce that I am now the proud owner of the 2 paintings I posted recently. Mirela bid very successfully in Sofia - the only bidder apparently for them. So on Sunday we will drive down; stay at least 2 nights in my favourite city; pay 600 euros for the two 50 year-old paintings and, hopefully, with the chance of a visit to a spa and wine area of three, bring them back.

virtual auction

In a few minutes the Victoria Gallery in Sofia starts its quarterly auction in the Sheraton Hotel. I've been at a couple - fascinating experience - but didn't manage to buy anything. Today I;ve asked my friend Mirela (who was my fantastic assistant in the 2007-08 Phare project) to look after my interests - 3 of them - of which this is the plum - at 250 euros asking price. Petar Vunardjiev - 1970 I think.

Although this is a new blog - I've been blogging for some months on a larger (professional) site - with papers I;ve uploaded - which has, however, a very unsexy name -

www.freewebs.com/publicadminreform/