Fly me to the moon

Cicero has observed that despite last week’s considered thoughts on child cruelty and abuse, young children are still being seen in early hours of morning accompanying mum and dad to work. Never fear. Now that the toothpaste is leaking from the tube, it cannot be long before Super Nanny, aka the government, sets up and enquiry, a database and an Authority to regulate this behaviour. You mark Cicero’s wise words.

And lest you doubt the importance of secrecy in the TSSB let the following true tale highlight for you how seriously the TSSB is maintained.

This may surprise you but you as a taxpayer pay for someone to check our desks in the TSSB at the weekend. It is known as a Security Sweep. (Presumably a Security Sooty is seen as demeaning and not at all appropriate).

Anyway last weekend Security Sweep and Security Sooty inspected Cicero’s desk for breaches of security. Of course Security Sweep and Security Sooty have to justify their existence and their lucrative weekend working, and having failed to locate contraband security papers, as if a Marketing Head Honcho would have access to documents of such great import, confiscated an old notebook full of Cicero’s doodlings and claimed it as a Security Breach. Presumably it gives an insight into the man’s diseased and warped mind.

Seriously this notebook contained nothing of significance but it was deemed a Security Breach. Presumably with a terrorist attack deemed likely at some point in the future and at some undefined place, these doodles were a short step away from being blown up.

Hopefully you are now assured of the lengths the State go to maintain the TSSB as a TSSB and not just a SB. You can sleep easy.

Now quite a few years ago John Kennedy, sometime American President, went on a visit to NASA’s headquarters in Florida. After meeting with all the Head Honchos, Luke Skywalker wannabees and engineering geeks with brains the size of planets, he was introduced to an elderly black woman.

‘And what do you do?’ asked Mr America

‘I am helping put a man on the moon’ replied the elderly lady

‘And how do you do that?’ asked Mr Handsome

‘I keep the toilets clean’.

Cicero was reminded of this conversation when communing in recent days with one of his many friends who works for the National Nanny Service, sorry the National Health Service.

A similar question was asked of said friend who told Cicero that she was a project manager with the National Nanny Service which meant that she managed projects. Note no word of helping make people better. Or keeping people healthy. Or even helping others nanny us.

If we compare the NASA answer to the National Nanny Service answer there are two things worthy of note and please start to consider how you would answer this killer question.

Firstly, the NASA toilet cleaner told the President what she did first and not how she did it. And I guess that is not how many of us would answer that question. We would focus on how we do it not the purpose of what we do.

And secondly, note the complete alignment of purpose throughout the organisation. How many of us can say that the businesses we work in offer such a clear sighted, single minded and inspiring view of its purpose? Damn few probably but what is stopping us as individuals developing our own clear sighted, single minded and inspiring answer should we ever be introduced to the American president?

In Cicero’s simplistic world, and sometimes simple is best, there are only 2 types of people in any business-those who serve customers and those whose job it is to help and support those who serve customers. If you are not in either of these groups you should not be there.

The National Nanny Service should not want people to manage projects. It does want people whose job it is to help doctors and nurses keep us fit and healthy.

Not everyone can be a Luke Skywalker but we can all help the Luke Skywalkers in our business fly to the moon.

Is it only me…….who hates to be told that someone is only following orders?

It has often been said that Cicero has a problem with authority. Cicero would dispute this but given sometimes what we all have to put up with from petty bureaucrats and power crazed apparatchiks it is often no wonder that from time to time frustration might boil over.

From time to time, well quite often actually, Cicero is often faced with being asked, and often told, to do something which defies logic and common sense. For example Cicero was asked last week in the course of his duties to complete a form to provide information that had previously been supplied in non form format.

Now not unnaturally Cicero questioned and challenged such non value adding bureaucracy and requested the rationale for such stupidity. Typical responses to such reasonable challenges range from ‘its procedure’ to ‘it's what I have been told to do’ to ‘I am just following instructions’.

Is it only me who thinks that such responses are what led to concentration camps and the gas chambers?

Nothing riles Cicero more than coming across people who probably know that what they are being asked to do is insane and can probably see the reasonableness of Cicero’s arguments but who no doubt think that they preserve their roles in life by lobotomising their instincts and all rational and logical thought.

So if you want to annoy Cicero all you have to do is sustain and defend petty bureaucracy. Even better. Wear a high visibility vest when you do it. But that is a whole new ball game.

Have a great week.

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.