Replying to LO27166 --
Before I swept away the infrastructure, I would begin to educate and train
the individuals in the society to participate in and develop visions,
plans and action activities to develop and sustain the community they
desire. I believe in the development literature this type of philosophy
is called developing social capacity. In this case, this social capacity
can be developed within the society itself. The type of process I refer
to is one which is participatory in nature in that the individuals in the
society decide their future vision and plan and act to bring that vision
into reality. I have such a project going on now.
While participation is used as a vehicle, this type of activity is not
participation for the sake of participation; rather, what is sought is
'public agreement'. Creating conditions where a society can speak to
itself about its needs and begin to act in concert to move in that
direction together.
Once the vision and public agreement are developed, resources to
accomplish tasks as necessary; and, this is often where implementation
results in a struggle as we compete for the application of scarce
resource. Practical assessment of the resources are a critical part of
moving forward.
Numerous theories and methods come into play. Each offering a substance
of thought, informing actions in the development of the society.
Sound too easy? Well, it's not easy; rather, amazingly complex. But, I
have worked in this way in developing countries where large populations of
people have congregated into cities. What I find is that it works.
Citizens in today's world are willing and able to participate wholly in
the management and leadership of their societies. It's rather amazing to
watch citizens come together in dialogue, begin to understand more of the
complexities of their society, and then decide what are the most critical,
what I call the vital few initiatives, they need to move into the vision
they have created.
Certain support structures need to remain in place; usually those that
deal with communications, roads, and other shared infrastructure remain a
requirement for centralized living. Who supervises and plans for those
infrastructure supports is another issue. Perhaps a society of
individuals which are both subject matter experts and citizens that use
the services; a blend of interests. Again, preparation through
development of individuals to work in this type of environment would take
time and be key to success. I have such a initiative going on now, and
will begin to write about the successes and challenges in an up-coming
article.
Linda Suzanne Wing, PhD
The Development Company
At 11:19 PM 08/25/2001 +0000, you wrote:
>Hello
>
>BLUESKY:ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT IN A METROPOLITAN LOCAL
>AUTHORITY
>
>If you could sweep away all of the 'central people support' functions in a
>Metropolitan local authority - personnel, work analysis, CPD, TNA,
>training MD, OD, NVQs, personal development, workplace counselling,
>etcetera, whatever...what would you replace them with? what would you keep
>and why? what are the key challenges and needs? what would you
>outsource/keep in-house?
>
>I know that's more than one question, but the big question is a chance to
>bluesky the whole thing...
--Linda Wing <lwing@usinternet.com>
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