Getting strategic at the uni and in other places

There are some aspects of strategic thinking that I need to investigate and practice if I get the opportunity.

It might be possible to do these first without too much consequence with Ian and then with Cathy. They are different areas and they have different missions but the strategies required would be good practice for me.

I think I need to be aware of the actual strategy in use expericence rather than jsut the theory of it.

Both are strategic negotiations of sorts but they differ in the material aspects of strategy from each other.

i need to think through the mission, climate ground, leadership and positions first may need to think out loud in next post.

The University is begining to move to make staff redundant

The university will now probably move to force a redundancy in information services. There have of course been plenty of different sorts of voluntary and other more hidden forms of redundancies or forced resignations and retirements at the university before this. One that comes to mind is Jing Ping who was forced to accept a package _ I think it was forced after not accepting an offer for a contract. There is a process that was followed here and I think it was not so good. Other examples include the creative arts staff, the Information systems staff and LFR two years ago.

What did we do in those instances? Why was there no outcry? Were those so inevitable and unable to be resisted.

Now a staff member who currently has work and has been identified as fulfilling an important role in the university especially in relation to the future e- learning and online areas of the university has been told he is excess to requirements because of financial exigency.

This indicates a new low that needs to be resisted not sure that there will be enough interest to make a big splash with it yet. A process of redeployment has to be followed first and I hope this will be a long drawn out thing.

These are random notes that are getting my attention at the moment

The days are getting cold and so is my sense of enjoyment and hope for humanity. It seems to me that there are quite a few really selfish people in the world and what is depressing me about that is that the more selfish and hard line they are the better they seem to be placed or rewarded.

The observation arises form a few circumstances of negotiation that I have been directly involved in recently and some otehr observations from others like Wendy and Michael Bjork Billings where their interactions with others seem in a similar way to have been against a very hard line or demanding position taken by the person they were dealing with. The outcomes from these interactions seem inevitably that reason and fairness are wasted ideals and the importance of taking unreasonable and demanding positions is the most beneficial way to proceed.

This is an observation that maybe a learning point about being in the big bad world. You would have thought that I would have been fully aware of this by now but maybe i have been avoiding the reality of the evidence or maybe I have led a protected or blinkered perspective up to recently.

I wonder if it is all to do with my experiences with the legal tangles we have faced over the years to do with housing and inheritance. The outcomes there were unsatisfying or irritating or frustrating. There are probably stronger words that I should use here.

Even so the learning that is becoming evident to me but is difficult to accept is that bad attitudes always win against good or less repulsive attitudes. Therefore in employment and money areas the notion that there is a fairness test or any rights in natural justice is not evident. People who may get some result for themselves do so by being a pain and an making unreasonalble demands and then being hard line or extreme about those demands.

Is this the way of the world well yes it is you just have to be as unreasonably demanding and selfish as possible and them unrelenting in your attitude and definitely do not indicate at any stage that you are able to see the other sides point of view.

If you are reasonable or indicate a broader perspective that your own selfissh hard line, perhaps illogical and unreasoned position then you are weak and can be taken advantage of.

Strangely this probably is well understood by others who are selfish and unreasonable and used as the most beneficial approach in all dealings of importance with others at all times.

Do not let the bastards win at all costs - do not givve an inch and do not show any signs of reasonableness or that will be taken advantage or and you will have lost and this will continue and there will be no let up on this. IT is the strategy of bullies but you might ask why are their bullies - because being a bully is rewarded immediately in most circumstances. If a bully is called to task it will be over a single isolated incident that means other incidents are gotten away with and the single one may not be of consequence when put beside the others. SO stop being Mr nice guy. ":There is no act of kindness of such greatenes or worth that it remains unpunished"

Practitioner theorists

The problem was she listed these in the same blog entry that she announced her withdrawal from hre PhD studies at Curtain and the disappointment she felt at the restrictive nature of academic study that attempted to frustrate her interest in Web 2.0 as a legitimate area of research and referenced based study

Practitioners she mentioned were Stephen Downes, Will Richardson, Doug Johnson, Stephen Abram, Michael Stephens, John Connell, Leigh Blackall, Ewen McIntosh, and Alan November are engaging with the learning needed in new environements, gathering me up in the learning as they go - something my current academic program does not do.

The Global Summit was also mentioned as a place for pportunities to interact with global colleagues like the event at TeachMeet06 will give learning opportunities that no analysis of a “reader” would ever manage. How sad to ‘regurgitate’ to prove understanding.