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January 25, 2008
What does it mean?
Good management is a process of using somebody else's money and achieving what they want with it. It doesn't have to be commercial-- it can apply to anything that needs to be done.
One of the tricks of good management is being able to use words so that the people who give the money know that you understand what they want and so that the people who work with you know what they are supposed to do. As is so often said 'If you want to succeed - Keep it Simple'
One of the reasons the DCMS and the MLA have been so constantly ineffective is that, despite their apparent connection with literature they can never say anything that another person can understand. What does this mean --?
"An MLA spokesperson said: "It’s envisaged that in the future we'll work more flexibly and generically. Rather than working on one specific dimension like libraries, we’ll work increasingly across the three sectors. The [MLA] structure will reflect that."
You can see from this piece in the Bookseller that these three sentences were given in response to the jounalists offer to let the MLA explain its latest press release. If you are a taxpayer who pays Roy Clare's salary (140 uk pounds per annum) what do you think he is going to do? What are you paying for? If you work at the MLA what do you think you are supposed to do? What does this mean? How will you know if you have done a good day at the office?
Libraries, Museums and Archives are actually quite different things used on different occasions for different purposes. Anyone knows that. What makes one good is not the same as what makes another good. It's obvious. Even a cat can see that. So why pretend otherwise?
Posted by Perkins at January 25, 2008 11:23 PM