Day: March 20, 2010

The public sector, yes!

News alert has it: Illinois is broken

It’s all about our timeservers in Springfield and Chicago:

Two in Sfld

What’s going on?

When your strategy is delay-and-deny, you have chosen to be obsolete. Reasonable people want to elbow you aside and make way for problem-solvers. That’s why, in America’s private sector, a generation of managers who confused mastery of the status quo with aggressive response to crises has been shoved into early retirement. Those execs lacked the skills to quickly re-engineer failing businesses. To make unfamiliar, uncomfortable, unpopular decisions. To halt death spirals. Many of those ex-bosses now call themselves “consultants.”

Day by do-little day, the leadership rank in Illinois government looks more like a breeding ground for consultants. An epic challenge has brought not an epic response, but rather a pattern of petrified inaction and bizarre belief that revenue is sure to rebound. Faced with problems largely of their own making, these people merely shift the blame to national economic trends. They behave as though they are helpless. And perhaps they are. We, the voters and taxpayers, are not.

Etc.  See Chi Trib for more more more . . .

Tags: ,

The public sector, yes!

News alert has it: Illinois is broken

It’s all about our timeservers in Springfield and Chicago:

Two in Sfld

What’s going on?

When your strategy is delay-and-deny, you have chosen to be obsolete. Reasonable people want to elbow you aside and make way for problem-solvers. That’s why, in America’s private sector, a generation of managers who confused mastery of the status quo with aggressive response to crises has been shoved into early retirement. Those execs lacked the skills to quickly re-engineer failing businesses. To make unfamiliar, uncomfortable, unpopular decisions. To halt death spirals. Many of those ex-bosses now call themselves “consultants.”

Day by do-little day, the leadership rank in Illinois government looks more like a breeding ground for consultants. An epic challenge has brought not an epic response, but rather a pattern of petrified inaction and bizarre belief that revenue is sure to rebound. Faced with problems largely of their own making, these people merely shift the blame to national economic trends. They behave as though they are helpless. And perhaps they are. We, the voters and taxpayers, are not.

Etc.  See Chi Trib for more more more . . .

Tags: ,

OPRF’s Weninger in SC

OPRF’s Supt. Weninger in South Carolina:

Today, the seven-member [Asheville-area] board must [begin to] decide who among the three [candidates] – a cerebral Midwesterner, a thoughtful South Carolinian and an engaging Georgian – will be their top choice. [italics added]

Next week the decision.  Weninger:

if ($(‘#story_assets’).length == 0 && $(‘#assets_ad #yahoo_300x250_ipbtf div’).length == 0) {
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At Wednesday’s public forum, Weninger addressed a long-standing concern among Richland 2 personnel that an outsider would alter community and culture that already exist in the district.

. . . this is the first time in decades that a board is looking to outside leadership.

He explained the name:

For sure, Weninger is not a Southerner, noting his name, Attila, was given him by his Hungarian immigrant father.

But he said his parents’ story of coming to America fueled in him the sense that he could live anyplace in the country and be comfortable.

“I think I can be comfortable in Columbia. I really feel as if I belong to this country,” said Weninger, who described his leadership style as “situational.”

His style “has got to accommodate the culture,” he said, adding that he’d been brought to Oak Park to “make change.”

That ended in controversy with the board refusing to extend another three-year contract.

“My work is not done,” Weninger said. “I want to leave my kids a legacy because as an immigrant’s son, that is very important to me.”

Tags: , ,

OPRF's Weninger in SC

OPRF’s Supt. Weninger in South Carolina:

Today, the seven-member [Asheville-area] board must [begin to] decide who among the three [candidates] – a cerebral Midwesterner, a thoughtful South Carolinian and an engaging Georgian – will be their top choice. [italics added]

Next week the decision.  Weninger:

if ($(‘#story_assets’).length == 0 && $(‘#assets_ad #yahoo_300x250_ipbtf div’).length == 0) {
$(‘#assets_ad’).hide ();
}

At Wednesday’s public forum, Weninger addressed a long-standing concern among Richland 2 personnel that an outsider would alter community and culture that already exist in the district.

. . . this is the first time in decades that a board is looking to outside leadership.

He explained the name:

For sure, Weninger is not a Southerner, noting his name, Attila, was given him by his Hungarian immigrant father.

But he said his parents’ story of coming to America fueled in him the sense that he could live anyplace in the country and be comfortable.

“I think I can be comfortable in Columbia. I really feel as if I belong to this country,” said Weninger, who described his leadership style as “situational.”

His style “has got to accommodate the culture,” he said, adding that he’d been brought to Oak Park to “make change.”

That ended in controversy with the board refusing to extend another three-year contract.

“My work is not done,” Weninger said. “I want to leave my kids a legacy because as an immigrant’s son, that is very important to me.”

Tags: , ,