*Ø* Blogmanac | Don Watson on the "death sentence"
Friends, Romans, customers ...
"Good evening, and welcome to the Third Annual Strategies for Enhanced Sustainability and Public Sector Personnel Development Programmes Conference.
"At these now traditional fora, officers commit to flexible world-class outcomes in present and future iterations and key strategies in personnel development programmes ..."
Don Watson, historian and former speechwriter for Australian former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, delivered one of the funniest and most intelligent speeches I have heard for a long time. Transcript is here.
Listen (Real media)
Watson tears apart the global language of management that infects almost all of the institutions of our society. Even the CIA refers to its 'customers'! He quotes actual bullshit like this (and we know it abounds in our society now):
"From the strategic management point of view, customer-focused differentiation effective through design can be a source of competitive advantage. From the user-centred design and customer-centred marketing point of view market-place practices can be developed that inform the strategy formation process especially in the transaction from plan to emergent strategy. This systematic production of design information can support the creation and iteration of all customer interactions manifested in the design of product services, environments and communications."
"You’ll find those phrases in the public language of every significant organisation in the country, including quite possibly your local school, the library and swimming pool," Watson says.
"Then there is the political side of it and I won’t dwell on it. There’s a site on the internet that someone pointed out to me last night where the Gettysburg Address has been reduced to a Powerpoint Presentation."
Watson raises nothing really new to anyone who is aware of how capitalism co-opts language, but his speech is well constructed, dense with ideas, and smart. It's worth reading right through as some of the best bits are at the end. And at the end of the day, in this time frame at this point in time, you'll want a good outcome to support the creation and iteration of all customer interactions manifested in the design of product services, environments and communications, won't you?
Friends, Romans, customers ...
"Good evening, and welcome to the Third Annual Strategies for Enhanced Sustainability and Public Sector Personnel Development Programmes Conference.
"At these now traditional fora, officers commit to flexible world-class outcomes in present and future iterations and key strategies in personnel development programmes ..."
Don Watson, historian and former speechwriter for Australian former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, delivered one of the funniest and most intelligent speeches I have heard for a long time. Transcript is here.
Listen (Real media)
Watson tears apart the global language of management that infects almost all of the institutions of our society. Even the CIA refers to its 'customers'! He quotes actual bullshit like this (and we know it abounds in our society now):
"From the strategic management point of view, customer-focused differentiation effective through design can be a source of competitive advantage. From the user-centred design and customer-centred marketing point of view market-place practices can be developed that inform the strategy formation process especially in the transaction from plan to emergent strategy. This systematic production of design information can support the creation and iteration of all customer interactions manifested in the design of product services, environments and communications."
"You’ll find those phrases in the public language of every significant organisation in the country, including quite possibly your local school, the library and swimming pool," Watson says.
"Then there is the political side of it and I won’t dwell on it. There’s a site on the internet that someone pointed out to me last night where the Gettysburg Address has been reduced to a Powerpoint Presentation."
Watson raises nothing really new to anyone who is aware of how capitalism co-opts language, but his speech is well constructed, dense with ideas, and smart. It's worth reading right through as some of the best bits are at the end. And at the end of the day, in this time frame at this point in time, you'll want a good outcome to support the creation and iteration of all customer interactions manifested in the design of product services, environments and communications, won't you?
Pip Wilson posted item above at 12:10 PM | Permalink
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