The hills are alive

Cicero feels that he must take up a few words to respond to the comment last week from Anonymous.

Firstly you will surely agree that Cicero does not ‘ramble’ on the NHS or on any other topic. We like to think that Cicero with forensic precision picks apart the nonsenses of today’s world.

And secondly he does not understand why Anonymous thinks that Cicero will ‘stew and no doubt get quite argumentative’ over the revelation that one hospital Trust is to partner with John Lewis to deliver customer service training and marketing skills. Indeed Cicero applauds the realisation that the hospital requires customer service skills and that John Lewis, a fine brand, is to be the chosen partner.

Cicero does however question the waste of public funds on marketing skills. Given that the NHS is a bloated and inefficient monopoly, to whom does it feel it needs to market itself? If Cicero could make one suggestion-focus on investing in the quality of the product and that includes reducing waiting times, and you will not need a brochure or an ad to market yourself. No doubt you have a Marketing Director and all the cost that entails. Why?

Now Cicero is getting stewed up and argumentative. Time for a lie down and change of subject.

A few weeks back Cicero had the pleasure of walking up some of the finest hills in Wales for the weekend with some of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. We added the last bit lest any of them might be joining us here for the week.

It was a miserable trek, even though the company was splendiferous. The weather was wet and windy and the hills steep. It was not long before Cicero’s merry band was damp and water logged but with great determination they resolved to get to the top. And they did. It was a triumph of mind over matter and of ignoring the discomfort, the dampness, the wind, the cold, the shortness of breath, the tightening of muscle, the straining of sinew...............

Now Cicero, as many of you will know, is not the fittest lion in the pack but what he lacks in fitness he more than makes up in intelligence and leadership. On this occasion he was surpassed and in the process he learnt a vital lesson in leadership which maximised the efficiency and effectiveness of the team and ensured that all hit the top of the mountain together.

Please don’t get the impression that Cicero was scaling Everest or K2 or even a mount of the calibre of a Ben Nevis but it was still a steep mound that had to be scaled.

And as we neared the summit with about 300 metres to go and with the wind resistance increasing as the gradient steepened, some of the party were beginning to find the going tough and breaths were getting shorter and shorter. This was the point leadership took over. And the solution was simple.

Without discussion, a meeting or a agreement, The Wee Man took over and organised the party telling them that he would go ahead for 50 metres and when he stopped the next man would follow up the hill and so on and so on until we had all got to the same point when the process would be repeated for the next 50 metres. In this way the team made progress and all got a suitable rest and recovery period to catch breaths. And so as a result of this inspired leadership, the team reached the top.

And this is this week’s learning.

If we all work as a team we can all complete the task in hand, even the weakest members of the team can play their part. It is not that you go at the pace of the slowest but you organise the resources around you in such a way that the weaker members of the team can play their part and make a contribution. All it requires is someone to step up to the plate, like The Wee Man, and to organise solutions that will get everyone there.

And when that happens, all in the team can get to enjoy the view.

Is it only me.....but what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Over the course of the past week we have had the unedifying spectacle of the Two Caesars trying to appease public sector workers before they went on strike. I am glad they failed to avert the walk outs.

And in passing I wish the media would stop characterising the dispute as between the government and the unions-it is between the taxpayer and the unions for in my book the government is merely the representative of the taxpayer in this instance.

And before I get deluged with whines from Apparatchiks pointing out that they too are taxpayers might they be reminded that they pay their taxes from taxes paid by the rest of the taxpaying community. All they are doing is re-cycling the cash.

Now as I understand it the reason the unions have decided to take on the taxpayers is because they resent having to pay more for their pensions, they do not want to work longer before they get their pension and for reasons that escape me they want us, the taxpayer, to continue to underwrite their pension liabilities so they can enjoy a comfortable retirement.

Really? It’s time for them all to wake up and smell the coffee.

No it might only be me but surely what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander and it is time for the Apparatchiks and their union bosses to realise that those of us struggling every day to create value to generate taxes to fund their lifestyles, realised years ago that we would have to pay more for our pensions, work longer and retire with less. It’s to do with demographics, our longevity and falling stock market returns in a low interest rate environment as much as the need to save money.

Maybe an Apparatchik or two out there might like to explain why the rest of us should be paying for someone else to get a better standard of retirement living than we can get.

Let them strike, I say. There is no negotiation to be had with this taxpayer. It’s now time for the Apparatchiks and their union bosses to get real and to join the world the rest of us have been in for a while now.

Have a great week.

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.