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The System: buck it or bend it? That is the question

I was listening to the Leader of the LibDems, Nick Clegg, saying that it was time for the Speaker, Michael Martin, to go.  His argument is that tradition, and ‘good form’, dictates that MPs don’t criticise the Speaker, but he condemned the Speaker for “dragging his feet” over the issue of MPs’ expenses, and as someone who is “a dogged defender of the way things are” at a time when radical change is required.  Mr Clegg feels that now is not a time for being discrete and ‘playing the game’, but one for changing it!

One can look at the banking system and ask the same same question, does it need modifying or radical change?  Change is like this.  The perpetual question is “Do I bend it or do I break it?”  There are costs and advantages both ways.  Radical change ends up losing all the elements that  worked in the previous system, marginal change always just nibbles away at the problem but never eradicates.  Radical change is exciting at the beginning but takes a long time to become effective, and there is a lot of mess in the interim. 

Which approach do you prefer?  What strategy has worked best for you?

“The (American) Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”  John Adams

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 09:25 and is filed under Business Change, General, Personal Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “The System: buck it or bend it? That is the question”

  1. Sam Deeks says:
    17 May , 2009 at 10:50

    Which works best for me? In my experience when something needs to be done I need to do it. That means choosing, committing and doing rather than warming up and going through the motions to build up to it.

    What needs to change here isn’t the system or the rules (they change to suit the context) but the ‘incompleteness’ that drives many of us in society to be greedy; to go to any length to acquire the things we think will make us feel better.

    Let’s look past the detail – the ‘story’ – and see ourselves in these people and their actions. Why do their actions press such powerful buttons in us?

  2. richardderwentcooke says:
    17 May , 2009 at 11:20

    This comment is really opening up this issue Sam.

    I suspect that many (or even most) of us feel that we are somehow ‘not enough’ and look to things or other people to complete us. You are right in implying the only way to find real fulfillment is to look inwards. To recognise that we are ‘OK’ and yet constantly strive to be ‘Better’ too. We strive, fail, and then need to forgive and get back on with it again!

    I am very aware there is almost certainly not a single business person out there, who is currently going “Tut tut” who hasn’t ‘fiddled his expenses or his tax return at some stage.

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