A propos the comments of Harrison and Joelle on this (below) on working within the informal system and perhaps not knowing what can't be said and done:
I had the experience of working as a non physician or laboratory scientist in a medical school. (My field at the time was Nutrition). In this situation people did not know what to make of me. For a long time neither did I! - and I'm still wondering!! What I did come to appreciate is that, while I had no 'power' in an orthodox sense I could have substantial influence. And so I took the libertty of saying things which noone else would dare to. I had enormous fun in doing so, including acquiring skills in presentation and hiring a red sports car specifically in order to make an impact at a key gathering of all faculty members and other stakeholders. This was in the course of deliberations about switching to a graduate entry curriculum - similar to that in the US - from one in which students entered directly from high school. My 'feral' activitues had a considerable bearing on the formulation of a Vision and Goals for the new curriculum, through the Dean inviting me to be a member of a three person group to come up with a guiding document on these. As a consequence the underpinning philosophy of the new curriculum has a different balance from more traditional medical training, with a more humanitarian focus and a lesser emphasis on scientfic knowedge and technical skills. Good to converse, with love Alan Adelaide ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joelle Lyons Everett" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2001 5:31 AM Subject: Re: Some reflections on OST, Bin Laden, etc. > In a message dated 10/18/01 3:23:17 PM, [email protected] writes: > > << True. but what is also "true" is that the tighter the system, the more you > can get away with. 'cause nobody suspects that anybody would dare. This is > not about terrorism (though I guess it could be) -- but as a denizen of one > of the largest "closed systems" -- the US Government for 20 years, I did > what I thought then (and now) were wonderful and wild things (read GOOD) by > playing in the realm of the Informal System. Never had a problem, because > nobody could believe I would actually do such a thing. > >> > > Harrison-- > > I've noticed this phenomenon myself from time to time. Sometimes there is a > lot of freedom in not knowing what can't be done. Or trying something so far > outside of the ordinary for that situation that no one has ready defenses > against it. > > Joelle > * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
