As they say in Australia, when you’re up to your arse in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp. And that’s the way with micromanagement: poor administrators and inadequate managers too busy controlling the minutiae of their roles and reputations that they forget to do anything to further the aims and objectives of the organisation for which they are responsible.
So nothing gets done other than creating new rules and making changes to the constitution, the better to control the natives, all the while looking over your shoulder for the slightest hint of an alligator about to nibble at your reputation. That’s partly why Mothers’ Union in the Diocese of York has not managed to produce a single new initiative in the last three years: they have lost sight of the vision. And where there is no vision, the people – and their organisation – perish.
The sad thing is that no one is attacking them. They’re up to their arses in imaginary alligators, which makes it all the more depressing. We can but hope and pray for new blood when the upcoming triennial elections are done with.
