It’s easy (and fun) to go to another country and start judging, especially when certain things aren’t run quite how you expect them to be. I have to check myself sometimes. In my head, by comparison with the daily frustrations of Mexico City, the London Underground has become a perfect transport system I know deep down that this is not the case. So I thought I’d give a couple of examples of organisational dysfunction that can’t be blamed on Mexicans.
Firstly, this week I went to watch the Democratic party debate at American Legion bar. The last one of these was not a success but mainly because the debate was incredibly dull and nobody turned up. This time, people turned up, and it was really exciting because Bernie et al united to hand it to Michael Bloomberg. I didn’t see it as they hadn’t sorted the feed out. We missed the start then watched some of it via YouTube until that broke, then I went to stand in the other room. I later overheard the organisers worry that they hadn’t sold anything from their giant table full of cute sloganed hoodies, which I hope is not a clue to the party’s main fundraising strategy (obviously it isn’t, that’s rich people). If the Iowa disaster hadn’t happened this would be less worrying.
Secondly, I’m helping someone with their English presenting skills at a large technology company. Their process is incredible – you can really see how this company became the world’s biggest search engine provider. 1. Boss, based in LA, writes a script about their education programme 2. Gives it to Mexican colleague to memorise verbatim 3. Colleague must present 91 slides for 2.5 hours without notes to grumpy Americans who don’t like being told stuff by foreigners. The script contains zingers like:
‘The problems educators face aren’t limited by geography- around the world, they are similar.’
‘Before we talk about the nuts and bolts of____ for Education, we need to understand the challenges facing the current educational environment, so we can see how ____meets these challenges.’
‘There is generally broad support for deploying tech solutions to assist in streamlining school management.’
Reminded me of Harrison Ford’s famous remark on the set of the original Star Wars: “You can write this shit George, but you can’t say it.”
The moral of the story is that people are equally incompetent everywhere (except Transport for London workers who are perfect).
Prickly Pears 