This year has been a big year for work, restructures as well as significant changes to learning and teaching technologies.
Ever feel like working in a large organisation is something like being surrounded by squabbling children? Don’t get me wrong, I love kids, I love my own kids like nothing else, but they’re children and fighting is an important part of learning and developing a sense of self.
At work though, its another matter. The squabbling that goes on in a large organisation seems to be based on a greed for control and power over others – its a sobering reminder that humans still have strong animal instincts.
If someone else thinks of a new idea, drafts up a new design, or wants to do something innovative, the controlling types I just mentioned try to stamp it out fast. Why is that? It reminds me of something I read in Jung’s Man and His Symbols:
Consciousness naturally resists anything unconscious and unknown. I have already pointed out the existence among primitive peoples of what anthropologists call “misoneism,” a deep and superstitious fear of novelty. The primitives manifest all the reactions of the wild animal against untoward events. But “civilised” man reacts to new ideas in much the same way, erecting psychological barriers to protect himself from the shock of facing something new.
It’s so true. I was pretty disappointed with a recent happening here. The current web banners (and entire web GUI) leaves much to be desired. Having come from a design background with years of commercial experience, I saw heaps of room for improvement. So myself and another staff member tried to push the boundaries with some design in the Corporate ID. We made a new banner for one of the institution’s websites.
Shock. Horror. The IT department was up in arms. Quickly putting up their psychological barriers and protecting themselves from the shock of something new. The drama that ensued was completely ridiculous and irrational.
IT said that the design didn’t comply with the Corporate ID of the University. Knowing that the style guide did actually make allowance for improvement and exceptions, we queried the design with the Division of Marketing. They were quite happy with the design, made some changes at their request and things were as good as gold.
But, oh how could we forget about the ever fearful and controlling IT department. They cried like a sulking dog (waiting for the bone) until Marketing revoked their approval of the design.
Say no more say no more, all I can do is shake my head. Although, it did cause me an extremely large amount of anger at the time.
[[ Images removed due to complaint by my employer ]]
