When I was working as an in-house manager in the late-‘80s, I was co-opted onto a number of working parties relating to the impending privatisation of the UK electricity supply industry.
At one meeting, draft job descriptions were handed out by representatives of one of the leading consultancy firms, who had been engaged to support this review. These related to the roles of senior managers in the new company's major power plants.
I immediately challenged the worth of what I saw as little more than an anodyne list of task-related activities; arguing that these didn’t inspire me in any way. The Group Manager, who had been overseeing the work, argued that these weren’t meant to inspire people; with the lead consultant adding, that “nobody reads them anyway”!
I said that, as written, these bore little relationship to the role that I was performing day-to-day; and that, given the fundamental shift in the nature of the business that we were embarking on, I certainly wanted to be inspired by the changes that were coming along. At that point, the Director who was chairing the meeting signalled a break.
During the ‘interval’ he told me that he agreed with the comments I’d made but that he hadn't wanted to undermine his Group Manager by openly saying so. Instead, he asked me to write to him with my thoughts. In response, I sent him a short note relating to what I called “Contribution Statements"; together with draft examples of what these might look like for the senior management roles on each of the operating plants.
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