Like many, I was very moved reading the Agenda article by the brother of the late Francis Mc Geachie , ( “What part did controversial college merger play in Francis’s suicide?”, The Herald, September 25).
I cannot comment on the circumstances surrounding this specific re-structuring but can draw lessons from my own experiences. Having familiarity with large organisations in the west of Scotland during my own working life, I completely empathise with the family who tragically watched Francis try to cope with the pressures and uncertainties imposed on him during the restructuring of FE colleges in Lanarkshire.
We should consider the fact, often ignored, that change management is a highly specialised professional field and requires significantly different skills from those exercised by a day-to-day manager or administrator. Sympathetically managing new policy on structural change is about embracing people rather than problem solving issues.
Nevertheless, it is invariably left to existing managers to do this highly demanding and unusual task. However a recent report from Investors in People suggests they are sometimes likely to be the last group to be expected to do the inter-personal transition effectively (“Edinburgh has the best bosses”, The Herald, September 24) .Your article comments from the findings that as far as bosses go, “ Glasgow is host to some of the most uninspiring”.
I expect many existing managers think of change as if they were driving a new railroad across the empty plains of the mid west. They often concentrate on the end result and consider the process as somewhat inconvenient. We have become so used to misunderstanding the role of modern management that referring to someone as “ bossy” is accepted as a pejorative term. It should be applied to someone who cares about the people for whom they are responsible, more than any other aspect of their job. Sadly we too often see bosses judge others by their own standards.
If we are to move forward in management in Scotland, those responsible for inevitable change should be confident to recognise their own shortcomings and hand over the task of re-structuring to professionals in this people-centred field.
Bill Brown,
46 Breadie Drive,
Milngavie.
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