Organisational Issues, Darkwave Recreation

[tcpip]

The most important issue in the the past week at work has been has been our internal QA audit ("the good cop" auditor) for our compliance with ISO9001 standards. Many of course still look at the competitive business case for having compliance with such a standard (e.g., we'll be better able to establish contracts with those organisations that requres ISO), or, having achieved certification, want to minimise the quantity of documents that are included in the repository or avoid having non-compliance requests found by their auditor. This is not the right approach. The primary reason for ISO9001 certification is to ensure that an organisation's procedures are documented, controlled, transparent, appropriate, reviewed and improved. Every organisation, whether or not they seek certification, should seek to comply to the standard. Every organisation should seek to include the widest possible range of its documents within quality assurance. Finally, every organisation should actively seek and record non-compliance issues.

Appropriately, when taking the service for Kenneth Davidson's address on the corrupt process involved in PPPs at the Unitarians on Sunday I took the opportunity to refer to Herbert Simon, who unfortunately remains a relatively unknown figure. After the service led the Philosophy Forum discussion on The Philosophy of History: Metanarratives and Hermeneutics. The well-attended Forum seemed to come to the conclusion that; (a) claims of inexorable historical laws are downright dangerous, (b) technical and organisational progress means history is increasingly chaotic, and (c) historical investigation is not unlike criminal investigation.

The week also had several instances of darkwave recreation. The first was playing Other Worlds, which encourages player-created settings. We ended up with a combination of Mad Max meets the Walking Dead in Australia. On Saturday hathhalla and ser_pounce came to visit we took the opportunity to play Arkham Horror, which was as good as I remember it. It was delightful appropriate playing this in the library of a former asylum on a grey day. Afterwards has dinner with Anthony L. at the Dainty Sichuan. Absolutely great for chilli fiends. Sunday played another session of Dark Heresy. Finally, and most importantly, was seeing The Sisters of Mercy on Thursday night at The Corner. Said venue is, of course, terrible and the mixing was up to its very ordinary standard. About forty minutes in there was a dramatic improvement in the sound quality, making the evening much more enjoyable. Reviews for all four items of recreation planned in the coming week.

Comments

[lederhosen]

We were at the same Sisters gig, surprised we didn't bump into you!

I've just started playing Deathwatch. My Raven Guard infiltrator is suffering from culture shock after meeting his Space Wolf teammates...

[tcpip]

We were at the same Sisters gig, surprised we didn't bump into you!

Well.. I must confess I didn't move much. I found a good spot and stayed there for the entire gig.

My Raven Guard infiltrator is suffering from culture shock after meeting his Space Wolf teammates...

Just keep on telling yourself it's not really their fault, it's just how they were brought up...

[lederhosen]

His attitude is "well, if they want to make a spectacle of themselves and draw fire, I guess that makes my job easier."

He's a bit concerned by their enthusiasm for friendly fire (in the very first combat their Rune-Priest almost killed the team medic with an AoE psychic attack cranked up to eleven) but as long as he's scouting ahead, that shouldn't be his problem...

[tcpip]

Well, what can one say? Fenris is a tough homeworld and one doesn't get sentimental about individual lives, but is endlessly calculating about the total number. Perhaps some gentle suggestions along those lines...

[serehfa]

Sisters of Mercy would have been awesome!
Best you can hope for at the Corner is for it to be loud enough to get a full body experience. Then again Royal Crown Revue at the Corner was a far better experience than the much bigger tcket Stranglers at the Palace (?) where I was down the back under the mez floor and the acoustics were so dreadful that it was barely worth going - apart from the company who bought me the ticket, thanks D!!

[tcpip]

Best you can hope for at the Corner is for it to be loud enough to get a full body experience.

Right, that's going into my review.

[harmfulguy.livejournal.com]

I find myself both amazed and delighted that some incarnation of the Sisters of Mercy is still performing.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Yes, and unlike some other bands they haven't stopped, reformed and then gone on tour. It's been pretty consistent for years now. Although the punters are eagerly awaiting when their long-running disputes with the recording companies will end.

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

"We have a great complaints procedure. We use it all the time."

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

That's a good thing... As long as there is a process of dealing with the complaints.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

I agree that the main reason for adopting ISO9001 is to achieve transparency. And again, this leads back to building trust in customers and thus establishing a name of reliability. And that brings more customers of course :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Indeed, and the sort of customers that you want. Also, whilst quality is not production but process based, one needs to have the right processes in order to ensure high-grade production.

[decrypt-era.livejournal.com]

Quality is assured by workers who care about their work, not by ever more paperwork. "Management" is a societal psychotic delusion. Death to the KPI's.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Quality is assured by workers who care about their work, not by ever more paperwork.

Let me pretend to be an auditor. "Prove it!".

"Management" is a societal psychotic delusion.

The best chef in the world who needs ingredients on Friday night that will not arrive until Monday needs management.

Death to the KPI's.

Indeed, quickly so we can knock over the next one.

[decrypt-era.livejournal.com]

Let me pretend to be an auditor. "Prove it!".

Let me pretend to be a scientist. "Proofs are for mathematicians and philosophers."
Instead, I have a theory, based on observing QA and other control fetishes from the POV of a worker actually creating goods and services - that the people doing the work are the best suited to organise it, because the devil's in the details.

These sort of discussions remind me of those interminable geek vs hippy arguments about the benefits/evils of Science, which conflate Science the Ideal with Science the Fallible Human Institution, and confusion reigns. QA the Ideal = the systematic eradication of error to earn the badge of confidence. QA the FHI = a cost hurdle to earning the passkey to play with the big boys.

The best chef in the world ... needs management.

Now, I am aware that completing complex cooperative tasks requires logistics, strategy, research, foresight and so on, but to use these as a justification for management as it exists in large organisations today is akin to those arguments that support capitalism by citing the opportunities it provides to the Mom'n'Pop entrepreneurs on Main St. In practice, large concentrations of privately owned capital rob small entrepreneurs of their successes, while leaving them with all the risk.

Similarly, claims that management enables workers to do their work seem at odds with real world experience of workers doing their work despite the interference of management. A more plausible reason for all the hierarchy and centralisation is the need to extract and concentrate the surplus labour of the proles. Without that, the useful organisational functions of management might be distributed back out onto the shop floor.

Indeed, quickly so we can knock over the next one.

Sorry, I don't get what you mean here. O_o

In any case, by "death to the key performance indicators" (or ergometrics, as they liked to call it in the Victorian era) I'm calling for organisers to have their models follow the work being done rather than expect workers to follow the model. Shackling them to a number often results in perverse and counterproductive tactics in order to meet unrealistic goals. As the layers of abstraction build up, so do the errors of approximation, especially since subordinates have an incentive to lie to superiors to gain approval. So we end up with some version of the fabled Pentagon simulation of the Vietnam War that informed the generals that they'd already won years before.


Apologies for incoherence - no sleep, 45 hours. Will rant bowt gold and such tomorrow.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

"Proofs are for mathematicians and philosophers."

Well, the philosopher will say that mathematical proof is but one kind. Empirical evidence is another.

Instead, I have a theory, based on observing QA and other control fetishes from the POV of a worker actually creating goods and services - that the people doing the work are the best suited to organise it, because the devil's in the details.

QA applies as much for worker-owned organisations as it does for private capital.

QA the FHI = a cost hurdle to earning the passkey to play with the big boys.

No. As mentioned, organisations should engage in QA even if they are not seeking ISO certification, for the aforementioned reasons.

Now, I am aware that completing complex cooperative tasks requires logistics, strategy, research, foresight and so on,

Good. That's what I was referring to.

Similarly, claims that management enables workers to do their work seem at odds with real world experience of workers doing their work despite the interference of management.

You are confusing the person (managers) with the activity (management), of which I will readily admit there is a very poor correlation in capitalist firms.

In any case, by "death to the key performance indicators" (or ergometrics, as they liked to call it in the Victorian era)

No. KPIs are not at all related to ergometrics. The former are stated objectives which tie to the mission of the organisation, i.e., the reason that it exists. The latter is efficiency of the work conducted, i.e., time and motion studies, which can quite easily be completely contrary to the organisation's mission.

So we end up with some version of the fabled Pentagon simulation of the Vietnam War that informed the generals that they'd already won years before.

Actually, the Pentagon gave very accurate information to the politicians about the Vietnam War (c.f., The Pentagon Papers). It was the politicians that lied to the public about the potential for victory.