In the past week I have seen parts of the parliamentary debate known as the "kindertoeslagen affaire". This debate tries to untangle the timeline of events in the governmental organisations up to and including the ministerial level.
We construct things as long as history goes. We build bridges, roads, undergrounds, malls, etc. etc. And at every construction site, you always see a construction cabin ("directiekeet"). Out of luxury? Of course not!
As a manager you sometimes have to deal with complex issues you cannot resolve immediately. Luckily you are human too! 😊
I wrote before about the crucial importance of communication within your role as a manager. There are many aspects to this and I already covered a number of them. I am sure many of you recognize the feeling that something or someone triggered a sudden upcoming of an true emotion, be it anxiety, angry or upset.
I have frequently written in my blogs about the Rijnland model and its compromising approach to solve complex challenges. In the Dutch culture decisions are often based on the outcome of some kind of a democratic and explainable process (also called 'polderen'). I fully endorse this approach, but there must be a big BUT!
In many organizations the mission and vision trickle down on a yearly basis in the form of management and personal objectives. Normally, every layer of management in the hierarchy links eventually upwards to the overall company objectives.
I will certainly not claim that a project is always successful if the governance is properly setup and executed. But it is very remarkable that most if not all research shows that (the lack of) governance was at least one of the causes of failure...
If you follow the debate in the Netherlands about biomass and the potential opening of two new biomass power plants, it demonstrates the perfect example of its drivers. It is all about numbers.
I can not count the number of meetings I participated in, where we wasted lots of time on topics where a personal view was more important than noted facts about the same topic. If you do so in your meetings, only blame yourself, because you went along!
One of my first blogs discussed the power of numbers, Numbers do the talking! But how they 'talk' is not by using them as they are.