Monday, May 01, 2017

1 May Marches: Leadership Skill Hard Skills

“A country is considered the more civilized the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak or a powerful one too powerful.”

Without imagination of the one kind or of the other, mortal existence is indeed a dreary and prosaic business... Illumined by the imagination, our life, whatever its defeats — is a never-ending unforeseen strangeness and adventure and mystery.

— Walter de La Mare, born on this date in 1873


AS FORREST Gump once famously said: 'Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get 


TO BOLDLY GO WHERE FRANK J. FLEMING HAS GONE BEFORE: “At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States found themselves locked in a chilling race to nuke the moon, declassified military documents reveal.”
To be fair, one could modestly describe such efforts as “A Realistic Plan for World Peace.”

HOLD THE CRIMINALS ACCOUNTABLE: Remember the VICTIMS of Communism on May Day!



'People Have Had Enough of Experts'

 

“In my view … the intellectual life of Australia since the Whitlam years has been increasingly weakened by the reluctance of almost the entire educated population to deal with past events whose implications might undermine their heartfelt views.” — Clive James Upmarket agitprop: Clive James on John Howard on Bob Menzies 

While you can’t simply copy down notes on how to practice leadership, these skills can be developed. Reflecting on how you define and approach problems is a good place to start. Can leadership be learned?






Professor Stephen Martin: "I was blessed in that I was a member of a government that had someone like Bob Hawke and Paul Keating who could sell a message. You had someone like John Howard when I was in opposition who could sell a message. None of those fundamentally varied what that message might be. They tried to say to the people, “This is why we need to take these hard decisions now.” Paul might have said, “This was a recession we had to have,” and economic history will show that was probably right." (How to communicate public policy contentgroup)
 





"We do care about satisfaction. But we know that for most government services, how users’ feel about a service is very closely tied to whether they can use it effectively to get the right outcome for them." (Why we care more about effectiveness than efficiency or satisfaction. UKGDS)

Most back more spending for veterans, education, infrastructure. “As Congress faces an April 28 deadline to fund government operations, the public is now split in their general preferences on the size and scope of government: 48% say they would rather have a bigger government providing more services, while 45% prefer a smaller government providing fewer services.