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A collection of thoughts |
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Crystal Dragon A creature of strength. One who may intimidate and strike fear into the hearts of others with its fiery presence. Yet, it is also a fragile creature - exposed through openness, transparency, and vulnerability. |
| Are we truly representative of the diverse general public like we claim to be? Are we truly engaging the public equally and providing assistance to those who truly need it with these targeted programs and incentives we come up with in our virtual boardrooms? We put out calls for public engagement and feedback on plans and frameworks and then pat ourselves on the back for being open and transparent and inclusive with these processes, but are we actually excluding large swaths of our population in the very formalized and structured way that we request their engagement? We put up these 30-100 plus page documents and send them out to communities to be implemented, but were they engaged in the plan? Did they provide feedback? What about their citizens? These huge documents full of government jargon and language are incredibly difficult for the average person to interpret and understand – I still have trouble with all of the jargon and acronyms! Even the pre-work to this course, it was a 23 page document to review. It provided an outline of ideas and step by step instructions. Some structure, a framework. I skimmed through it, dismayed by the very rigid and formalized way the information was presented. Do you want to know what stood out to me? Page 9 Planning and Design principles. Know the experience and motivation of your audience. Modify the level of detail for your audience. One suggestion in the BC public service is 2-4 slides for executives. Keyword points on slides to facilitate absorption – max of 6 words per screen. Executives want bullet points and the Coles notes version of complex problems, yet we expect the general public to digest these extensive, jargon filled documents and provide feedback, sometimes in the form of a written essay in a set time frame. We exclude them by intimidating them. Is it possible that we are creating a deeper divide instead of building bridges and creating connections with communities with these processes? Are we really representing the best interests of the average citizen of BC? Are we really champions of diversity, equity, and inclusion or are we just trying to fill quotas and create elaborate documents full of buzzwords that will make us look good in the eyes of other high-level, very educated people and their associated institutions? Are we truly trying to build back better or are we just making more empty promises and speaking hollow words? Are we actually engaging the public we claim to represent? Are we actually capturing the diversity of thought, diversity of opinion, and diversity of experience from our audience? So, I have to ask all of you: What are we doing and who are we really serving? Do we really know our audience? Do we really understand them? |
| All of these definitions thrown around are great and all; building resiliency and capacity and supporting learning and development are nice thoughts; and building frameworks is nice as it’s good to have a backbone and reference for future employees as guidance, but what is the outcome and action of all of this planning? What is actually being achieved with all of these skills growth projects and needs/gaps assessments? How does succession management translate to action on the ground? What does this mean to the front line employees and people on the receiving end of our services? How does this serve the citizens of BC? When are we going to move from conversations about definitions and how important it is to build relationships and actually translate this into actual change in the real world? I’ve been in government for 7 months and heard so many buzzwords and talk about change and strategy, but I’ve seen so little real and measurable change and action. The future of BC and the government is in our hands, isn’t it? What’s standing in the way of results and forward movement? Can someone please explain why this all takes so long to translate into the real world? And all of this talk about employee engagement is great, but you aren’t actually engaging us. At least, that is my experience. I feel totally disappointed and disengaged with my position. I am underutilized and bored out of my mind. I don’t even know why I am here being paid each day yet, I still show up and fill my time with helping anyone who asks me for anything and by engaging with your learning offerings in the hopes of advancing my position/career – hoping that I might make a real difference for the future of BC and especially, for all of the people who live here. I feel like I am wasting my time here and it’s incredibly frustrating. |
| I get know your audience, but if you are writing online to a very broad and general audience, how do you keep your words real and authentic while appealing to everyone? You can't possibly please everyone. You can't possibly not offend some people. You also can't trim and neuter your words to fit the new inclusive ideology that seems to be permeating everywhere. It's gotten to the point, in many spheres, that so much is said, but nothing has true substance or meaning anymore. What about freedom of thought, expression, opinion, conscience, and the UN Declaration of Human Rights? It was written, with great care, for very good reason. *Addendum* Not every human on the planet is "pleased" with the UDHR1, and that is also okay. It is very well-written and a consensus was met at a very pivotal time in our shared history. I believe it is applicable to all human beings on the planet, even though not every single voice on the planet was included. Some classical texts, documents, and oral teachings/traditions truly stand the test of time.  Footnotes |
| The ability to find joy and laughter in the darkest of places is an essential aspect of the human experience. To find comedy in death can help one to thrive after the trauma instead of simply just survive. |
| Sometimes I feel like everything I write just reminds me of something else I read, or heard in a song, or a movie, or somewhere else. And sometimes I just feel like everything is one giant conglomeration of all the art and stories we have shared across time and history. Just all morphing together like a giant deformed monster. Everything just copied and pasted, sliced, diced, edited, and slapped together like a f***ing behemoth chimera sitting in the desert laughing at all of us fools trying to find something of value to piece together from the chaos. Something original, some truth to what we think and say - to what we feel, to what we do. And sometimes all I can seem to pick out of that damn pulsating collage of a chimera statue are little tendrils. They spiral out like spiderweb silk and then evaporate before I can grab onto anything that feels real and tangible. |
| What is life? This plain existence we seek. We spend our whole lives seeking sometimes without truly finding, without truly seeing what is real, what is right in front of us. This mirror of uncertainty that gently nudges us towards and away; like a seesaw gently weaving back and forth. In perpetual motion, the song never ends. Its melody goes on forever into the night. An endless reminder of a song that was. Once forgotten by the masses. Few recall the notes, ever fewer recall the sounds. Stare into the abyss long enough and the silence within will grip you. An endless assault on the senses for lack of any stimulation to bring us back to this reality. This real-life simulation we call life. |
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