Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Toolboxes and arsenals

Two days of solid meetings, but generally I'm strangely happy with work at the moment - a few accidental moments of joy have conspired to put a strange spring in my step.

I was asked to write a philosophical piece on why we do what we do, and why government gets involved in what we do at all. That was two months ago, and I've agonised, strained; written and rewritten; read and re-read the same 2,000 words again and again. Finally yesterday I gave up and gave my boss a draft. He's played with it a bit, improved it a lot (he's a wordsmith) and I've stopped worrying. The real question is why I worried so much and why I waited so long. "Personality" is the short answer: it's in my nature to fret about my work.

Wonderfully and joyfully, F today told me they had a presentation at her work (a department of great learnings and infancy*...) about leadership and leadership education. They had a tedious presentation about "how leaders influenced". As part of the presentation, the speaker talked about the "leadership toolbox" or "leadership arsenal".

I asked whether that made her leaders tools and/or arses?

She said "yes".

*F's idea to point out the "infancy" or at least "infantile" aspect

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The essay sounds like a nightmare. Such a vast area to cover yet make it interesting? Unless the topic was narrowed down to just transport.

I love wordsmiths, my fave is Phillip Adams on Radio National Late Night Live, although he interrupts his interviewees.

A presentation on "how leaders influenced". Was Hitler involved? Someone gets paid a shitload to come up with these slogans and they aren't a true wordsmith. What in a leaders toolbox? People to make them look good I assume.