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Beatrix Campbell on Princess Diana: 23 November 1995
If Princess Diana's words seem "extremely paranoid" – Nicholas Soames' verdict – then let's remember what Diana said about the Establishment for which he spoke. She is their enemy. We believed her because what she revealed was how they made her mad, and how they represent her mutiny as madness. Never before on British television has an aristocratic woman been so eloquent about pain as protest. The reason we believed her was that behind her are thousands of women sent to the tower, to the asylum, to the attic, to solitary confinement. The drama of self-destruction unmasks the impossibility of protest. The Establishment has been locking up women for centuries. It's what they do.
The confidence that they'll go quietly is confirmed by the bumbling megalomania of Charles' marriage. He thought he could love another while scouring the shires of England for a seemly virgin, a girl who would give him sons and secure his mission as a man who wanted to be king. He found an uneducated young woman who, these days, could only come from either the poor or the rich – the only classes for whom gender is destiny.
The monarchy, lest we forget, is the most atavistic monument to patriarchy. The aristocracy disinherit their girls and demand that they deliver boys. Diana is no revolutionary. But never before has a woman in her position articulated mass pain. She has mobilised an army of supporters, and the palace has been forced to show some respect for the impact of her words.
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Baghdad: 14 September 2004
I decided to help the guy with the phone who was screaming. I ripped his T-shirt off and told him to squeeze it against the gash on his head. I tried to remember the first-aid training I had had in the past, but all I was doing was taking pictures.
I turned back to the man with the twisted knee. His head was on the curb, his eyes were open but he just kept making the faint sound. I started talking to him, saying, "Don't worry, you'll be OK." From behind him I looked at the middle of the street, where five injured men were still lying. Three were piled almost on top of each other; a boy wearing a white dishdasha lay a few metres away.
One of the three men piled together raised his head and looked around the empty streets with a look of astonishment on his face. He then looked at the boy in front of him, turned to the back and looked at the horizon again. Then he slowly started moving his head to the ground, rested his head on his arms and stretched his hands towards something that he could see. It was the guy who had been beating his chest earlier, trying to help his brother. He was just there dying in front of me. Time didn't exist. The streets were empty and silent and the men lay there dying together. He slid down to the ground, and after five minutes was flat on the street.
I moved, crouching, towards where they were. They were like sleeping men with their arms wrapped around each other in the middle of the empty street. I went to photograph the boy with the dishdasha. He's just sleeping, I kept telling myself. I didn't want to wake him. The man with the bent knee was unconscious now, his face flat on the curb. Some kids came and said, "He is dead." I screamed at them. "Don't say that! He is still alive! Don't scare him." I asked him if he was OK, but he didn't reply. I just ran selfishly away. I reached a building entrance when someone grabbed my arm and took me inside. "There's an injured man. Take pictures – show the world the American democracy," he said.
Andrea Dworkin – Dear Bill and Hillary …: 29 January 1998
Monica Lewinsky is in a terrible, terrible mess. She's being threatened by a very mean special prosecutor who has unlimited powers. And he plays hard ball. She has my sympathy. Of everyone who is a player in this game, she is the one who is going to be destroyed by it.
We are talking about a man who, in a predatory way, is using women, particularly young women. In this case, a woman who was working as an intern, for no money, because of her devotion to the Democratic Party and to him. In an alcove next to the Oval Office, he simply unzips his pants and she sexually services him.
Bill Clinton's fixation on oral sex – non-reciprocal oral sex – consistently puts women in states of submission to him. It's the most fetishistic, heartless, cold sexual exchange that one could imagine. People are characterising this as a sexual scandal, but it's an abuse-of-power scandal. And it is a very hard thing for someone who is 20, 21, to find herself in the middle of all this, subpoenaed to talk about her sex life.
The second issue that concerns me is what Hillary Clinton is doing, which I think is appalling. She is covering up for a man who has a history of exploiting women. If there is one thing being a feminist has to mean it's that you don't do that. You don't use your intellect and your creativity to protect a man's exploitation of other women.
I have a modest proposal. It will probably bring the FBI to my door. But I think that Hillary should shoot Bill and then President Gore should pardon her.
Ben Goldacre on Gillian McKeith: 12 February 2007
Call her the Awful Poo Lady, call her Dr Gillian McKeith PhD: she is an empire, a multimillionaire, a phenomenon, a prime-time TV celebrity, a bestselling author. She has her own range of foods and mysterious powders, she has pills to give you an erection, and her face is in every health food store in the country. Scottish Conservative politicians want her to advise the government. The Soil Association gave her a prize for educating the public. And yet, to anyone who knows the slightest bit about science, this woman is a bad joke.
She talks endlessly about chlorophyll, for example: how it's "high in oxygen" and will "oxygenate your blood" – but chlorophyll will only make oxygen in the presence of light. It's dark in your intestines, and even if you stuck a searchlight up your bum to prove a point, you probably wouldn't absorb much oxygen in there, because you don't have gills in your gut. In fact, neither do fish. In fact, forgive me, but I don't think you really want oxygen up there, because methane fart gas mixed with oxygen is a potentially explosive combination.
Nancy Banks-Smith on EastEnders and biscuits: 25 June 2003
"She's pregnant!" cried Sharon, who had a sulky teenager in tow. The announcement caused smaller waves than one might expect. "Right," said Pauline, finding herself a great-grandmother. "I'll get the biscuits, shall I?"
In EastEnders (BBC1), any minor crisis – fire, pestilence, the sword – calls for a nice cup of tea. For the apocalypse, add biscuits.
Zoe Williams on abortion: 27 October 2006
I remember the first time I wrote about having had an abortion; it was in the mid-90s (the abortion, I mean. And the article, too). A survey had come out saying that one in four women had availed themselves of termination services; I was surprised by how low that figure was, but it also made me think: if 25% of women have had abortions, then surely every one of us, male and female, has a friend or partner or family member, someone very close anyhow, who has had an abortion. Seriously, unless you are very cloistered or you are incredibly judgmental and uptight and nobody ever tells you anything, you will have been aware of an abortion at very close quarters, even if it was not your own.
So why does nobody talk about it, I pondered then, and do again now. Why are there never any abortion jokes? Why is it unthinkable to discuss it without prefacing everything with "of course, it's terribly traumatic, no woman enters into this lightly"? I found it no more traumatic than any other operation I have ever had, no more psychologically scarring, way less painful than anything involving my teeth and considerably less annoying than anything I have had done on the NHS (whose "resources" in this area meant I had to go private, which is entirely against my principles, but did make it very convenient).
It is considered a given, an unarguable tenet of modern society, that you would feel ashamed of having a termination, that you would, in some cutesy, feminine, inarticulate way, feel "bad" about it. You are not allowed to talk about this operation unless it is to say how dirty it made you feel. We are all expected to have these moral objections and yet suffer the business anyway, in the name of pragmatism. Ethically, this is a far dodgier and more repugnant position than mine, which is that I am entirely pro-abortion because I do not consider it murder; if you do not consider this foetus human, then it becomes no more of an issue than getting a tumour removed. If I have any shame at all, it is because, when my health was at stake, I immediately opted out and went private, and I would have hoped before that happened that it would have taken more than an unwanted pregnancy.
Ian McEwan watches 9/11 unfold: 12 September 2001
These were the kind of events that Hollywood has been imagining these past decades in the worst of its movies. But American reality always outstrips the imagination. And even the best minds, the best or darkest dreamers of disaster on a gigantic scale, from Tolstoy and Wells to Don DeLillo, could not have delivered us into the nightmare available on television news channels yesterday afternoon. For most of us, at a certain point, the day froze, the work and all other obligations were left behind, the screen became the only reality. We entered a dreamlike state. We had seen this before, with giant budgets and special effects, but so badly rehearsed. The colossal explosions, the fierce black and red clouds, the crowds running through the streets, the contradictory, confusing information, had only the feeblest resemblance to the tinny dramas of Skyscraper, Backdraft or Independence Day. Nothing could have prepared us.
Always, it seemed, it was what we could not see that was so frightening. We saw the skyscrapers, the tilting plane, the awful impact, the cumuli of dust engulfing the streets. But we were left to imagine for ourselves the human terror inside the airliner, down the corridors and elevator lobbies of the stricken buildings, or in the streets below as the towers collapsed on to rescue workers and morning crowds. Eyewitnesses told us of office workers jumping from awesome heights, but we did not see them. The screaming, the heroism and reasonable panic, the fumbling in semi-darkness for mobile phones - it was our safe distance from it all that was so horrifying. No blood, no screams. The Greeks, in their tragedies, wisely kept these worst of moments off stage, out of the scene. Hence the word: obscene. This was an obscenity. We were watching death on an unbelievable scale, but we saw no one die. The nightmare was in this gulf of imagining. The horror was in the distance.
James Meek on London's 7/7: 8 July 2005
It was only when you got to the shuttered gates of Angel tube station that the full sense of a capital in the grip of an emergency began to sink in. The Angel crossroads, leading to Clerkenwell, the City and King's Cross, was thick with pedestrians marching on unexpected journeys. It was the kind of weary crowd of clerks on foot that stimulated entrepreneurs into building the Underground railway, the world's first, 142 years ago. In the last century, in two great wars, the Underground protected the people of London from bombs. One ad for the tube in the first world war read: "It is bomb-proof down below. Underground for safety; plenty of bright trains, business as usual." In this century, in a war without clear aims, end or sides, it has become – as, for four years, we have more than half expected – a place where bombs go off.
Sebastian Faulks visits the battlefields of the first world war: 15 September 1993
The old man sitting next to me on the bus took my hand as he explained how it felt to be wheeled on a general service wagon over rutted ground with the two parts of your shattered leg rubbing together. When we stopped and got off, he showed me where the fire trench had been; he pointed to the German line about 90 yards distant, still marked by the indestructible concrete pillboxes. It was on this exact spot, he said, that his best friend had been blown to pieces beside him. "I picked them all up – none of them was bigger than a leg of mutton – and dropped them into a sandbag. I dug a hole in the ground and dropped the bag in. I marked it with a cross but they never found it."
The following afternoon I was walking with him in one of the eerily beautiful cemeteries maintained by the War Graves Commission where the air of tranquillity given by the clean headstones and neat jars of flowers is threatened only by the terrible number of graves. Suddenly my veteran friend gave a start. He was staring at a headstone at our feet. It was marked with the name of the man he had buried: someone had found the emergency grave and buried him properly. "Oh I say," he said, reunited for the first time since 1915, "Oh I say …"
For some time I had had the impression that the terrible scale of the Great War was something that had not been properly understood by people of my generation. Now, as I stood with the yellowish mud crawling over my shoe, I saw that it was not only larger but much more recent than I had imagined. It was not "history", something that could be kept comfortably at bay: this man was old, but he was cogent and alive. This was the place: here we stood in the same clinging mud – he and the rest of us whose grandfathers had survived. This was his life, and to some tragic but inevitable extent it was ours too.
Sports writer Steve Bierley turns art critic: 18 June 2008
In sport you are always waiting: the great shot, the goal, the end. You are also distanced from the others who watch, the supporters. "Fans with typewriters," an English journalist once scathingly described Scottish football reporters when they were covering their national team. Sports writing demands, though often does not get, degrees of objectivity and balance. But how can you be objective about art? Sport has rarely spooked me. But Louise Bourgeois did, all the time.
Watch sport and you think about sport. Observe art and you discover yourself. Spirals, nests, lairs, refuges. Bourgeois leads you to dark places you are not sure you want to revisit. Sport is the toyshop; Bourgeois proffers no hint of a welcome. Even the "Je t'aime" embroidered on the pillow in one of her claustrophobic rooms seemed like a threat. Rooms inside cages; bones inside glass spheres.
Outside the gallery, on a looped video, Bourgeois speaks about her art as if she were giving a talk to the Llansilin Women's Institute. It should have carried a warning: This woman is deeply dangerous. I go back to the comfort of Roland Garros, though Bourgeois remained a haunting and disturbing presence. I'm still spooked.
Julie Reid on growing up with blind parents: 1 August 2006
When I ask Mum how she managed to get to the shops with the three of us plus a guide dog, her explanation conjures up an extraordinary picture: "The dog was in front with my left hand and I was guiding the double pushchair with my right hand behind me, with Gavin walking along beside me." It was a quiet area, she adds. There were wide pavements and grass verges and the local shops were a short walk away. "We bought the house because it was near schools, shops and the park."
Linda Grant on why fashion matters: 21 September 2004
To be alive to fashion and what it can offer us is to understand the importance of the present tense. The possibility that there are always new clothes is part of what keeps us alive.
My immigrant grandfather handed down to his children and theirs the key to our future happiness: "There's only one thing worse than being skint," he said, "and that's looking as if you're skint." He taught us to care about what we wore because he knew how much it mattered, that we were making our way in the world and the deception of appearances were one of your weapons when you had no fixed place in the class system. When my mother died we said in her death notice that she taught us to respect others, that chicken soup could cure almost anything, and that a good handbag makes the outfit. From my father I learned that only the rich could afford cheap shoes. Fashion does not belong to a coterie of the elite, it is not the sole possession of Trinny and Susannah and their draconian rules (however, on the whole, right they actually are), or to the people seated on the gilt chairs in the front row at London Fashion Week, or Paris or Milan. It is the life-long love affair of the individual with their own idea of themselves.
Amelia Gentleman: life in an old people's home:
14 July 2009
One by one, six widows in their 80s and 90s arrive to sit together at the central table, rolling into the places they occupy every morning. Peggy Dunn drives herself in an electric wheelchair, a highly sought-after piece of equipment provided by the NHS wheelchair services to those deemed sufficiently mentally agile to be safe. Elsie Stone, 89, who has had both legs amputated, wheels herself in, slowly, her chair creaking as she makes her way across the room. ("Come on Speedy," Peggy says. "I can't. My arms hurt this morning," Elsie replies.) Lois Kettly and Violet Grove arrive and wait for someone to bring them breakfast. No one says anything.
Sometime after 7.30, Peggy, who has been here for eight years, breaks the silence to ask: "What shall we do today?" Her companions do not reply. "Let's do something different today," she persists. "Let's go on strike." On strike?" Elsie replies with a pale smile. "On strike from the monotony? It's the same every day. Every day."
Manal Omar wears a burkini in Oxford: 20 April 2007
One Sunday last month I went for my afternoon swim at my local David Lloyd's fitness club wearing the Islamic-style swimsuit I have been wearing for years. The swimsuit has recently been celebrated by media outlets from Newsweek to National Geographic as an innovative way for Muslim women to become more active. As an American-Muslim woman, I have always been determined to be active without compromising my faith. I have been swimming in capital cities across the world from Rio de Janeiro to Washington DC to Kuala Lumpur, and now London. Although I get curious stares, I have never had any awkward moments when I head out for a swim.
That is, until I came to Oxford.
As I was getting ready to head home from my Sunday swim, I heard a loud voice from a man stating that he needed to speak to the manager about dress code. I picked up on it, but didn't really give it too much thought, until I heard him yelling about "that woman over there" who was wearing the "burkini", the gist of what he was saying seemingly being that it was inappropriate. What the hell is that? The burkini? I could feel a rising indignation at the man's audacity in singling me out in this way. Who had died and declared him the pool police? There were several lifeguards on duty who had seen me swimming there over the previous six months, and none had objected to the swimsuit. It's been nearly a year since I moved to Oxford, and frankly, I had had enough of the anti-Muslim rhetoric in British political life. Now that I was in the middle of it, I refused to stand on the sidelines.
Benjamin Zephaniah on turning down an OBE: 27 November 2003
I woke up on the morning of 13 November wondering how the government could be overthrown and what could replace it, and then I noticed a letter from the prime minister's office. It said: "The prime minister has asked me to inform you, in strict confidence, that he has in mind, on the occasion of the forthcoming list of New Year's honours to submit your name to the Queen with a recommendation that Her Majesty may be graciously pleased to approve that you be appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire."
Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that word "empire"; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised. It is because of this concept of empire that my British education led me to believe that the history of black people started with slavery and that we were born slaves, and should therefore be grateful that we were given freedom by our caring white masters. It is because of this idea of empire that black people like myself don't even know our true names or our true historical culture. I am not one of those who are obsessed with their roots, and I'm certainly not suffering from a crisis of identity; my obsession is about the future and the political rights of all people. Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.
There's something very strange about receiving a letter from Tony Blair's office asking me if I want to accept this award. In the past couple of months I've been on Blair's doorstep a few times. I have begged him to come out and meet me; I have been longing for a conversation with him, but he won't come out, and now here he is asking me to meet him at the palace! I was there with a million people on 15 February, and the last time I was there was just a couple of weeks ago. My cousin, Michael Powell, was arrested and taken to Thornhill Road police station in Birmingham where he died. Now, I know how he died. The whole of Birmingham knows how he died, but in order to get this article published and to be politically (or journalistically) correct, I have to say that he died in suspicious circumstances. The police will not give us any answers. We have not seen or heard anything of all the reports and investigations we were told were going to take place. Now, all that my family can do is join with all the other families who have lost members while in custody because no one in power is listening to us. Come on Mr Blair, I'll meet you anytime. Let's talk about your Home Office, let's talk about being tough on crime.
Veronica Horwell in besieged Sarajevo: 12 October 1992
On the sofa bed in the safest corner of the safest room in this unsafe flat are cuddled Zika and his wife Mina. Cradled between them, Vedrana, five, whose dirty blonde plait wriggles out of the blankets, and Zvjezdan.
The Chetniks – that's what the enemy are called here, never Serbs – have severed pipelines from reservoirs in the hills. Water used to dribble through taps some hours, some days, some places, and could be hoarded in the bath. Now 400,000 Sarajlije, Sarajevans, are waterless. We prowl, watching for a rare tanker hiding itself shyly from snipers, and run towards it. We have the floor-cleaning bucket and the screwtop containers that the supermarket used to sell full of salad dressing. Within minutes of a tanker's arrival, a queue of a hundred, and the driver calling armed police, because he cannot part with all his minimal supplies here. Tempers sharpen with uncertainty. "You bastard, YOU WAIT YOUR TURN."
The driver tries to reverse out. We don't let him, and we follow the spout with our pots even though his wheels threaten to roll over our feet. We're pushing each other now, my tub thrust in over yours, a scrum, we're spilling the stuff.
Those with no shove, thirst. They could walk two kilometres to a bend in the river, where a line waits all day either to scoop the sludge from the bed or to catch the gush from a punctured pipe across it. Vlado helps us, and other friends. He drives the Heap, with his usual alternation of creep and crash, across a bridge to the south old town. In behind the nonfunctioning brewery and the Catholic church. The end of this road, the top of this hill, are in enemy hands: we're thieving water from the Chetniks.
Such water. From a spring in a walled garden, it flows ceaselessly, sweet, cold. All day long the householders hose it into any pot proffered by anyone. Having no coffee or cakes, they instead let us drink water unstaunched. Potatoes have displaced courtyard flowers but up the walls are the soft, scented antique roses of Sarajevo. A bunch is cut to take back for Mina, who allows them a whole half-litre of their own water in a glass. Today we have plenty.
Hilary Mantel on Kate Moss's perfume: 1 January 2009
Its name is reminiscent of what Guerlain long ago called L'Heure Bleue – that time of day, the cinq à sept, when cocktails are stirred and the discreet Frenchman would slip away to meet his mistress before going home to dîner en famille. Velvet Hour will do nicely for sex, but don't expect fidelity; ten thousand women smell like this. It's not really a twilight scent; you're more likely to spray it on before midnight, and lurch home at dawn in a dubious minicab with your shoes in your hand and panda eyes, so that its weary amber dry-down competes with the reek of spilled liquor. An initial sweetness of freesia gives ways to incense, and throughout the evening it hits you with blasts of blatant patchouli, so by 3am you want to crawl out of your skin to get away. It's genius, in its way – the persona it layers over your own, the story it tells. Such a sad little tale, though. A medieval theologian, had he possessed one of Kate's tacky-looking blue flasks, could have used it to explain sin – so warm for the first half hour, and afterwards so banal.
Operation Clark County: 18 October 2004
G2 launched Operation Clark County to help readers have a say in the American election by writing to undecided voters in the crucial state of Ohio. In the first three days, more than 11,000 people requested addresses. Here is some of the reaction to the project that we received from the US:
Dear wonderful, loving friends from abroad,
We Ohioans are an ornery sort and don't take meddling well, even if it comes from people we admire and with their sincere goodwill. We are a fairly closed community overall. In my town of Springfield, I feel that there are some that consider people from the nearby cities of Columbus or Dayton, as "foreigners" – let alone someone from outside our country.
Springfield, Ohio
Right on! Just wanted to say thanks from California for your effort and concern. This IS a very important election ... Thank you so much for getting involved in our world.
Real Americans aren't interested in your pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions. If you want to save the world, begin with your own worthless corner of it.
Texas, USA
G2 editor Ian Katz, responding to the torrent of invective his initiative had unleashed, concluded: "Somewhere along the line, the good-humoured spirit of the enterprise got lost in translation."
• What are the most memorable G2 features from the last 20 years? Tell us about your highlights in the thread below
• This article was amended on 17 October 2012 to correct the spelling of Sarajevo.


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Winter 99 Table of Contents
Versión Español de este artículo (Spanish Version)
Reprinted with permission from Band-Aides and Blackboards
Editor's note: At a recent parent workshop the issue of handling public reactions to your child with disabilities came up. "Debbie's Lesson to Parents", "A Father Copes" and "Reaction Time" speak to this issue. These articles are on the websites Band-Aides and Blackboards <http://funrsc.fairfield.edu/~jfleitas/sitemap.html> and Wide Smiles <www.widesmiles.org> which have useful articles from parents of children with chronic illness and a variety of disabilities. These parents offer insights and strategies they have used in situations common to all parents of children with special needs. Another resource is Children with Visual Impairments: A Parent's Guide edited by M. Cay Holbrook, from Woodbine House. In Chapter 5, Beth Langley suggests parents use a variety of strategies to deal with the public depending on the situation and their frame of mind.
As the father of a child with Glycogen Storage Disease 20 years ago and the father of a child with severe mental disabilities, asthma, and a list of other special needs today, I've spent a lot of time thinking about how I've coped with the reactions of others, and I thought that some of my ponderings might be of value to you.
There are two kinds of negatives that parents have to address: The overt ones are the simple ones. There are other more covert ones, though, that are the subtle messages often received from the people who we love and trust or the professionals who are supposed to be helping us. There are no easy answers, but here are some things I found helpful in coping with `problem statements'. There are three strategies that helped me when people were being negative:
- Education: Tell people the truth. Let them know that they are not being helpful and more importantly, let them know what would be more helpful.
- Escape and avoidance: If you can't change peoples' minds, try avoiding them. Perfectly healthy and, in some cases, easy to do.
- Fight: This should be a last resort. It takes too much energy, requires negativity, and is less likely to be successful than education or avoidance. However, sometimes there is little choice...(e.g., your child's school is giving you a hard time and there are no good alternatives).
Recognize that not all apparent support is helpful. Don't let anyone alienate you from your child. I needed support FOR my relationship with my child, not support AWAY from him. Things like telling me that people felt sorry for me, overemphasizing stress, etc. did not support me in my relationship with my children. Many parents are told implicitly or even explicitly, "Don't get too attached to this child or it will break your heart." This is a mistake. It is better to allow some heartbreak than to turn a heart to stone. Attachment minimizes stress. Parents of kids with intensive needs can handle a lot of demands that they see as labors of love.
Seek the network that really supports the relationship you have with your child. Often, this means other parents of kids with special needs. Sometimes it may even include a professional who cherishes your child.
Recognize the positive aspects of your child and his or her contribution to your family. Our five-year-old cannot talk and his motor skills are at about a one-year level. There is a long list of things that he can't do. We've spent some rough times, but everyone in our family can list many ways that he has made our life better and our family stronger.
Milton Seligman who has done great research on families wrote a personal perspective for the book Uncommon Fathers (1995) [D. Mayer (ed), Bethesda, MD: Woodbine House]. He says: "My suspicion is that the general public believes that a child with a disability creates enormous tensions within the family, eventually culminating in divorce. On the other hand, parents who speak and write about their experience with their child project the notion that a child with a disability marshals constructive forces within the family system and actually brings the family closer together." (p. 179)
One of the most poignant essays in the book is David Seerman's "Loneliness of a long distance daddy" Seerman writes about how he and his family decided to place their daughter Cassie outside their home, thinking the family would be better off...and only realized what she had contributed after she was gone. He concludes the poignant narrative of his loss with these words. "My family didn't need to be fixed. It was never broken."
Never let anyone rob you of hope. Research shows that professional caregivers consistently underestimate the quality of life of people with disabilities and often provide overly negative prognoses. They are too worried about giving people "false hope" and so they casually give them a dose of "false despair". Parents need to know that hope doesn't always mean "a cure".
Sometimes it is more important to be a parent than a paraprofessional. Parents are expected to be physical therapists, nurses, behavior modifiers, communication therapists and so on. Sometimes paid professionals tell us, "You don't need us; you know how to do all this stuff." Sometimes we have to tell them, "I'm sorry but we're too busy being parents to do all these other jobs."
The unique role of parents must be recognized, respected, and cultivated. Parents need to be parents first, and being good parents is the most important job in the world...

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On Fri, 6 Apr 2007, Elliott Sprehn wrote: > > This does not follow. > > In hundreds/thousands of years how will they know which version of HTML > they need to implement to view today's content? They'll only have to implement the latest one. That's the whole point -- by strictly ensuring that all versions of HTML are, when designed, backwards-compatible with all prior content, any browser that implements HTML n+1 will automatically support any real content written for HTML n, for all values of n. Look at it this way: today, how does a browser know what version of HTML to implement? They always implement HTML4, because if you implement HTML4 you are automatically compatible with HTML 3.2 content, HTML2 content, and so forth. Now, today this is complicated by a few factors: * The XHTML1 language *isn't* backwards compatible with HTML4, so browsers have to implement both (or not do XHTML). The WHATWG specs go out of their way to define both HTML5 and XHTML5 as compatible languages with minimal differences required to handle legacy content. * The quirks mode vs standards mode (vs almost standards mode, in the browsers that correctly implement the CSS inline box model) means that for HTML4, browsers need to have three slightly different implementations. The differences are relatively contained, however, and this is independent of the HTML version number. HTML5 again goes out of its way to limit the number of differences here (most are in CSS), though there's still some work we can do (e.g. in handling of </br>). > This is definitely a benefit of version information within the markup. > In the future when someone comes across a document with HTML they know > exactly which specification they need to implement. If we do our job right, they'll only have to implement *one* version, the latest one, and it'll handle all content. In my opinion, the alternative, namely that they have to implement several dozen versions to handle content from several dozen years, is simply unworkable and unacceptable. Cheers, -- Ian Hickson U+1047E )\._.,--....,'``. fL http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _\ ;`._ ,. Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'Received on Saturday, 7 April 2007 01:12:11 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Thursday, 29 October 2015 10:15:18 UTC


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To fund this game, we've chosen to create a Kickstarter page. We'd really appreciate if you would choose any of the funding options to help us reach our goal!
Mutation Madness is two-player card game in which you assume the role of a scientist meddling with genetics. When a dispute regarding the frozen yoghurt in the refrigerator between a fellow scientist escalates, you combine the aspects of ten animals into five mutated creations intent on defeating the opposing scientist's team. Choosing your team of mutated abominations wisely will ensure your victory, and means you finally get to enjoy your yoghurt.
One copy of Mutation Madness will contain the following:


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With regards to dessert, the HuffPost Taste editors have got you coated. These desserts are relatively easy to make, and with a bit of effort and good selections, you can make your candy treats delicious and healthy at the similar time. The tart style and agency texture of Granny Smith apples make this a sturdy, flavorful pie that is not overly sweet. Place into a bowl and cover instantly with plastic wrap to cease a skin from forming on the cream. Preparation is really easy – all you need to do is to just dump all the elements in a big bowl and mash them up earlier than you pour the cake batter in a roasting pan after which bake it. And that is about all! Another scrumptious dessert option that you've got is to sever the apple cake with caramel glaze.
Also, Lea over at PaleoSpirit has some nut-free recipes and nut substitutions (her son has a nut allergy as well). Loaded with carrots, nuts, and pumpkin pie spice and slathered with a velvety cream cheese frosting, these bars are sure to change into a household favourite.
This is one such dessert that does not require you to make very giant effort in its preparation. Alternately add the milk and flour mixture to the creamed butter and egg mixture. Whether or not you're a confident cook or a newbie, our dessert recipes are so easy to observe you may don't have any problem creating considered one of our beautiful dessert for friends. They may together make a crunchy and sweet dish which will be cherished by those who can be consuming it and you will be applauded for this excellent dessert.
Still, cinnamon is a great way to give taste to desserts as a substitute of adding extra butter or sugar. Om frying the ice cream, a crispy shell is shaped across the ice cream which is just amazing to have as a dessert. There are three forms of apples in this crostata that make it style balanced and delicious. However simply because it is a double pie does not imply it's double the work: Merely blind-bake the crust, then pour in the cooked apples and bourbon-pecan caramel, let cool, and serve. It is a very quick and easy dessert recipe, and you will not spend all day within the kitchen. In massive mixer bowl, beat cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar, cocoa, and 1 teaspoon vanilla till gentle and fluffy.
Since these nuts will lose their flavor and texture, use freshly chopped ones to combine into the ice cream for texture. The peanut butter leaves the ice cream abundantly smooth and creamy, permitting you to chop out the real cream solely and let the flavors of peanuts and Coke predominate. The candy substance of the recent corn added some of the salted coconut cream to make a lovely sweet dessert. The people eating this wonderful dessert will love each bite of it. This is one of the best desserts serving possibility that you've got in entrance of you. Canned sliced apples and purchased granola cereal make the crumble simple to assemble.


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Clark Squid Spoons are chrome-plated with an extra-strong, welded ring and have stainless steel hooks.
A highly proven fish producer for all types of saltwater gamefish. Scientifically designed to give the life like motions of a bait fish. Diamond shaped for maximum reflection. Features a chrome plated brass spoon with a mustad hook. Excellent for both casting and trolling.


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LIFE side event @PWIW: Presentations available!
The "The LIFE programme: funding opportunities & innovative solutions on wastewater treatment" event took place on 26 September 2017. This technical event gathered a total of nine innovative and highly transferable technologies on wastewater treatment developed by the programme.
Additionally, the side event included presentations on the programme's topics in the water sector for the following years as well as a slot on LIFE funding opportunities and future call for projects.
The results of this technical event are of interest to:
- Investors and stakeholders in the water sector in search of innovative and marketable solutions to reduce the environmental impact of wastewater treatment; and
- Potential applicants of the LIFE call for projects.
The presentations are available on this link.
For more information about the event, please contact Carlos DE LA PAZ (firstname.lastname@example.com).


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Bicycles&Blazers provides ICO and digital asset analysis, links and information in a standardized format to help identify the best projects and build a solid long-term portfolio.
There is no such thing as a standard ICO. Each new ICO brings a new way to present information. There's some outright scams and some that are simply bad projects. However, there are some very attractive projects. Our goal is to identify those projects and build a solid, high-growth token portfolio diversified among a handful of great projects.
With the number of ICOs increasing, we rely on others to help filter through the best projects. We monitor a number of sources for reports, data, and analysis to help identify projects to analyze. If the project sounds interesting enough, we do our own research and provide our own summary, pros/cons, and a conclusion, including what action we plan to take. Though boiling a project down to one number may be an oversimplification, we've provided our own score to be used top-level filter.
Naturally, our ratings and actions are biased to our own needs and circumstances. Over time, we plan to invest 10% of investable assets and view our token portfolio as high-risk/high-reward, though hopefully we can reduce some of the risk. If you're interested in following along, sign up for our email list.


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Bird & Nature Outing - Turville Point Conservation Park, June 11
Date & Time:Sunday, June 11, 2017 - 1:30pm to 3:00pm
Turville Point Conservation Park
1156 Olin Turville Court
Madison, WI
1156 Olin Turville Court
Madison, WI
Walk With A Naturalist! Nature lovers, families and kids will enjoy taking a fun nature outing with School Naturalist Emily Steinwehe. The prairies and woodlands will be lush with summer green along the trails. Emily will help you learn about the fascinating plants, bugs, butterflies, and other creatures that make their home in this beautiful nature preserve on the shores of Lake Monona.
Walks at Turville Point held on the 2nd Sunday every month are co-sponsored by Madison Bird City FUN partners Friends of Olin Turville and Madison Audubon. Meet at the Turville parking lot from John Nolen Drive at the railroad tracks.
Event Cost: Free
Handicapped Accessible: No
Sponsoring Organization(s): Friends of Olin-Turville
Pre-Registration?: No
American Sign Language (ASL) Provided?: No
Event Website: Bird & Nature Outings
Last Updated : 05/05/2017
Agency: Parks
Category: Live & Work, Health & Safety, Visit & Play


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Urban Decay Deluxe Shadow Box isn't a new palette but somehow this was not on my radar until recently.
You see, Sephora was FORCING me to spend mass quantities of cash by sending me a teaser coupon. I have bought many things there the last few months because them them FORCING me to use various coupons and discounts, so I wasn't sure what I *needed*. Then I saw this palette filled with bright amazing looking colors and I knew it would soon belong to me.
The palette includes 9 colors, some bright some more neutral, all with incredible pigmentation.
It comes with a mini Primer Potion, which is a nice added bonus.
Fishnet, Honey, Ransom
Fishnet is a bright purple/pink duochrome. Gorgeous color!
Honey is an amazing old gold metallic. I LOVE this kind of gold, so pretty.
Ransom is a vivid purple/blue (and also one of my fav liners from them).
Graffiti, Zero, Peace
Graffiti is a bright shimmery green. Pigmented and vivid!
Zero is a black with subtle sparkles. Very pigmented and nice for a black especially!
Peace is a bright swimming pool blue. Super opaque and nice.
Shag, Scratch, Underground
Shag is a super pigmented metallic copper. Love this one so much.
Scratch is a medium rose gold color. Very pretty and neutral.
Underground is a medium shimmery taupe. Another great one!
So it turns out that this older palette I was unaware of is now my fav Urban Decay palette! I absolutely love each of these colors, would wear them all, and love the soft texture and pigmentation. GREAT palette!
Availability: Urban Decay or Sephora.
Pricing: $38.00.
What do you think? Did you ever get this one?


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Further information
* This airframe can be rebuilt as a Fi 156 C1 with a guaranteed genuine identity if preferred (see data plate below). This plate came from a wartime collector of data plates who put them on a pair of wooden shields. Whilst the shields (less this plate) are not part of the sale, they can be viewed to ascertain their authenticity. It seems that most of them apply to German and Italian aircraft and vehicles that are likely to have been operated in North Africa during the desert campaign.


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Book Jason Today!
How Can I Book Jason to Speak Today?
We would love to talk with you about booking Jason Freeman to give a powerful and transformative presentation to your business, school, or organization. Please call us at 760-500-9878 or email ina(at)heroicyesproductions(dot)com to see how we can serve you.
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A portion of your financial gift becomes many gifts as Heroic Yes! Productions passes on 21% of Jason's Speaking Fees to non-profit organizations.
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Heroic Yes! Productions is NOT a non-profit with 501C status, so your payments are NOT tax-deductible as a charitable donation.


text: According to research, the 4 best dog breeds for people with asthma are Shih Tzu, Poodle, Bichon, and Airedale Terrier. The first three are small dogs, whereas the last breed, Airedale Terrier, is a large dog. Although, these breeds have been shown to invoke the least amount of symptoms in asthmatics, every person is different. No dog breed is completely hypoallergenic. To find out more about these breeds, see the article below.


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Managers know how to improve performance
This content was COPIED from BrainMass.com - View the original, and get the already-completed solution here!
Paradoxes and Leadership Roles: Assessing and Developing Managerial Competence
Alan T. Belasen, Ph.D.
The importance of managing paradoxes increases with the complexity of organizational environments. Organizational environments are more dynamic and uncertain due to increased globalization, shorter product cycle time, intense competition, and high levels of interdependence across the value chain of organizations. To successfully manage paradoxes organizational leaders must learn to deal with contradictions and embrace incompatible forces, rather than choose between them. The article addresses these issues and suggests the Competing Values Framework as a theoretical construct that can be used to map out the set of leadership roles performed by managers across levels. The utility of the Competing Values Framework as a competency assessment and development tool is further illustrated with two examples: development of an assessment tool aimed at facilitating understanding across vertical lines, and design of diagnostic-based interventions to enhance corporate managerial competence.
Today's successful business leaders will be those who are most flexible of mind. An ability to embrace new ideas, routinely challenge old ones, and live with paradox will be the effective leader's premier trait. Further, the challenge is for a lifetime. New truths will not emerge easily. Leaders will have to guide the ship while simultaneously putting everything up for grabs, which is in itself a fundamental paradox (Tom Peters, Thriving on Chaos, 1987, p. 391).
Leading and managing complex organizations is a challenge that transcends rational management and that requires paradoxical capabilities and behavioral complexity and competencies that distinguish great organizational leaders from others. Paradoxes are conflicting choices or conditions that demand equal attention. For example, managers want their organizations to be flexible and adaptive, yet integrated and stable. They want higher internal efficiency and profitability and also higher employee commitment and morale. The art of managing and leading organizations today lies in embracing incompatible forces, rather than choosing between them. Organizational leaders must learn to deal with ambiguity and paradoxes through a new mindset; one that combines and optimizes rather than splits apart and differentiates. Despite the prevalence of paradox in organizational life, however, the part of our mind that seeks certainty and precision rebels against the very notion of contradiction. In addition, corporate cultures traditionally value such abilities as "making hard choices," "setting priorities," and "biting the bullet," behaviors that eliminate certain alternatives in favor of others (Stroh & Miller, 1994, p.30).
People tend to think in a dichotomous way, develop discriminatory attitudes and behaviors, and maintain a linear, "either-or" orientation. Meeting the challenge of managing paradoxes requires a dialectical approach that synthesizes and balances between opposite forces. Effective managers often consciously create opposition and subsequent opportunities for new alternatives: From thesis and antithesis, a more powerful synthesis could emerge. This is where a learning organization can reap the benefits of inquisitive managers who challenge existing myths and truths and who are both factual and idealistic, i.e., asking questions about what is known and asking questions about what should be done, respectively. These managers are not driven by the need to preserve the status quo or their personal legacy, but by the opportunities created via a multidimensional, simultaneous orientation that encompasses the whole rather than the part. Effective managers face the challenge of a paradox rather than avoid it, and they know how to harness the synergistic tension contained in seemingly incompatible options to optimize problem solving.
Stroh & Miller (1994) outlined four ways of facing paradoxes:
Both/and thinking -- Managers must continuously brainstorm the question: "How can two incompatible values be true?" For example, increasing quality in the long run requires a short-term investment, therefore, improving quality costs money while it saves money.
Best of both thinking -- Managers must strive to create conditions that allow simultaneously for the emergence of contradictions through creative tension. Examples are loosely coupled structures, controlled entrepreneurship, and conservative innovation. The idea is to make personal values explicit by inquiring into both the positive and negative qualities of two seemingly contradictory paradigms and to develop a synergistic solution or a synthesis.
Expanding the construct space and time of a paradox -- When profits are down, managers tighten controls, and when sales are up and profits are soaring, managers increase responsiveness to customers. Thus, current market conditions require that managers simultaneously use belt-tightening and creative responses. Similarly, expanding the time frame should help managers optimize the management of paradoxes by concentrating on aligning short term with long term goals. Spatial and temporal constraints often lead to creative solutions (synthesis) using a systems approach. Stroh & Miller (1994) provide an example in which a company has a strategic dilemma involving redeployment of the manufacturing or marketing function. While manufacturing claims that only through development of high quality products can market share be increased, it can also provide competitors with an incentive to increase the quality of their products. Thus, it can potentially lead to lower industry margins and an increase in the company's overall profitability. Marketing has polarized its position by claiming that it is through customization that the company can maintain its leadership and, therefore, its dominance in the market. These seemingly paradoxical claims can be reconciled to reflect adjustments in manufacturing processes and quality standards in the short run while increasing the company's competitiveness and overall profitability in the long run.
Neither/nor thinking or choosing a third option. Paradoxically, this way of thinking replaces "both/and" by focusing on the outcome instead of the choice. Should management base its product development decisions on existing organizational technologies or on customer needs? Sometimes companies understand what will best serve customers before the customers know it themselves. In these cases, technology pushes the company. At other times, companies recognize that the customers know what they need most clearly. It is these times they let the customers lead the way. The road taken is the one that leads to making the world a better place. The paradoxical forces of both "technology push" and "market pull" help drive the company along the road (Stroh & Miller, 1994, p. 37).
Gareth Morgan's (1993) discussion of metaphorical analysis and applied imagination as cognitive tools that can help prospective leaders develop the conceptual skills and critical thinking needed to deal with paradoxes is relevant. By employing metaphors, leaders expand their views about the social construction of reality. They create a richer prism through which they can reshape interactional patterns and social processes. Applying metaphors diagnostically is also a learning tool; i.e., a reflective process of reevaluating the meanings inherent in organizational sagas, rituals, and norms of behaviors. The paradoxical nature of organizations is such that contradictory themes and patterns of interaction are often simultaneously exhibited, requiring leaders to constantly use different metaphors for diagnosing decision situations effectively. One such metaphor is presented through the Competing Values Framework.
Competing Values Framework
A key point of the Competing Values Framework (CVF) is that organizations are inherently contradictory entities, and therefore, organizational effectiveness criteria are fundamentally opposing, contradictory, and may be mutually exclusive. While we expect organizations to maintain stability and integration by paying strong attention to their internal workings and procedures, we also expect organizations to be responsive and adaptive by responding to pressures coming from the external environment. This approach, then, highlights the fact that organizations operate under the burden of contradictory, competing, and conflicting expectations. Responding to these expectations is vital for the success (effectiveness) of the organization.
Obviously, this burden is not borne by organizations per se, but by the managerial leaders in these organizations. These individuals function within a context of complex and contradictory expectations. In this way, the CVF reflects on the contradictory criteria of effectiveness that describe managerial leadership.
The Competing Values Framework (CVF) portrays the inherent contradictions facing organizations and managers on two axes or dimensions. The horizontal axis is one of focus: internal versus external. This axis reflects the expectation managers have that organizations should be concerned with both what goes on inside the organization, as well as with producing for and servicing an external environment. Specifically, while organizations must be able to manipulate, monitor, and measure internal tasks, technology, and personnel, they must also be responsive to the environment, including demographic changes, global economic events, market forces, government regulations, and competitors' behaviors and actions. The vertical axis of the CVF portrays the opposing expectations of flexibility and control. We expect organizations to be controlling systems. In this way, they provide a predictable and stable work world. At the same time, we expect organizations to be flexible and able to respond to the myriad of human needs and situations, to adapt to changes in their external environments, and to be a dynamic force in society.
The juxtaposition of these two axes forms four quadrants, each of which reflects a different model of organizational effectiveness criteria. The external horizontal axis and the control vertical axis appear in the lower right quadrant and define the rational goal model. This model reflects the view that organizations are effective if they meet their goals. Fundamental to this model is the need for structure and direction. The two managerial leadership roles associated with this quadrant are Producer and Director. Managers in the Producer role are task and work focused with high energy and motivation. They are self-motivated, motivate others, and pursue productivity. Managers in the Director role are decisive, provide direction for others, clarify expectations, and pursue goal clarity.
The internal horizontal axis and the control vertical axis appear in the lower left quadrant and define the internal processes model. This model reflects the view that organizations are effective if they are stable and keep track of activities within the organization. Fundamental to this model is the need for stability and control. The two managerial leadership roles associated with this quadrant are Coordinator and Monitor. Managers in the Coordinator role maintain work flow, analyze task requirements, and organize staff efforts. They pursue stability and control. Managers in the Monitor role are concerned about facts, details, reports, paperwork, rules, and regulations. They pursue documentation and information management.
The internal horizontal axis and the flexibility vertical axis appear in the upper left quadrant and define the human relations model. This model reflects the view that organizations are effective if they are able to tap the talents and thinking of their employees. Fundamental to this model is the concern for attention to human needs. The two managerial leadership roles associated with this quadrant are Mentor and Facilitator. Managers in the Mentor role are sensitive to the needs of employees and help employees plan their career growth and development. They pursue high morale and commitment. Managers in the Facilitator role build cohesion and teamwork among employees, use group problem solving and conflict management. They pursue participation and openness.
The external horizontal axis and the flexibility vertical axis in the upper right quadrant define the open system model. This model reflects the view that organizations are effective when they are able to anticipate changes in the economic-socio-political environment and even thrive when such changes occur. Fundamental to this model is the need to survive in a turbulent arena. The two managerial leadership roles associated with this quadrant are Innovator and Broker. Briefly, managers in the Innovator role are creative, deal with risk and uncertainty, envision needed changes, and help others to adapt to change. They pursue innovation and adaptation, external support and resource acquisition. Managers in the Broker role are politically astute and represent the work unit to people inside and outside the organization. Brokers link the organization externally and focus on networking and establishing strategic alliances and partnerships with other organizations.
The CVF represents a universal image of the repertoire of roles manifested in the behaviors of effective managers. For each role, Quinn, Faerman, Thompson, and McGrath (1996) have identified a set of three competencies essential for effective task performance. The CVF leadership roles and their associated competencies are depicted in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Competing Values Framework
Quinn, R. E., Faerman, S. R., Thompson, M. P., & McGrath, M. R. (1996). Becoming a master manager: A competency framework. New York: Wiley. Reprinted with permission.
The CVF roles can be viewed as both mutually exclusive (i.e., differentiated) and collectively exhaustive (i.e., integrated). Alone and together, each role subscribes to the need to balance its "time in use" or emphasis against the range of requirements coming from the other roles. For example, despite the fact that in playing the role of the Director, the manager is assumed to have a task orientation, some aspects of facilitation or even mentoring (involving the two roles at the polar opposite in the CVF) must also be manifested in the behavior of the manager to achieve effective managerial leadership. Similarly, while the Mentor is engaged in developing the leadership capabilities of employees to meet new organizational needs and goals, he or she must also balance coaching and counseling skills with the need to achieve synergy across functions, thus entering the domain or "turf" of the Coordinator. The value of this framework is in allowing managers to pursue a systematic journey of self-directed learning and self-development by helping them identify relative weaknesses and strengths and enhance their competence level.
Assessing Managerial Roles Across Levels
The CVF can be used to strengthen the vertical linkage within the chain of command by clarifying the roles and the expectations that managers have vis-à-vis the other levels. DiPadova and Faerman (1993) observed that by "examining the transition from one managerial level to the next, managers can better understand how their expected behaviors differ across levels...they can see how the roles [are enabled] in different ways in the different [administrative] contexts" (p.162). An important advantage of using the CVF, then, lies in the creation and maintenance of effective management communication. Problems involving information underload or overload, distortions, and negative filtering can be anticipated and overcome. Clarifying managerial roles and expectations can help minimize role ambiguity and offset the costs associated with dysfunctional role conflicts. Likewise, interpersonal conflicts involving turf issues, status, and power can be avoided in favor of developing a constructive dialogue and having positive learning. As DiPadova and Faerman (1993) concluded:
Often the levels are experienced as so discrete and stratified that members see themselves as separate constituencies in the same organization, rather than as members of the same team. The common language offered by the CVF ameliorates the separateness because it is essentially an organizational language that identifies performance criteria which are common across the hierarchy (p.168).
Lower management levels devote more time to direct supervision and monitoring subordinates to meet the operating goals of higher management. Top managers spend more time formulating plans, setting goals, determining priorities, clarifying constraints, and establishing the parameters (i.e., time, objectives, budget, etc.) to guide and control lower level activities and outputs. While managers at all levels perform the four fundamental functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, their managerial responsibilities tend to vary in important aspects as illustrated in the results of the field studies reported above. This variation typically transpires along the lines of time horizon (e.g., long-term planning versus short-term operational goals), span of attention toward different domains (e.g., market positioning, internal processes, managing professional intellect, organizational productivity, etc.), and range or scope of activities (e.g., micro versus macro issues, external versus internal focus, etc.). Top managers' time horizon and span of attention, for example, are strategic with a focus on the competitive advantages of the firm and its overall strength and positioning within the market. Lower levels, on the other hand, pay more attention to individuals and groups working together to accomplish the unit's goals.
While all managers require a blend of conceptual, technical, and human relations skills to perform their jobs effectively, top managers are expected to have greater conceptual skills than middle or first-level managers. This is because the depth of top managers' responsibilities is much greater and requires mental, analytical, and diagnostic abilities to acquire and interpret information from multiple sources in order to make complex decisions that affect the organization as a whole. Technical skills, including job skills and functional expertise, are more important for first-level managers. Middle managers, who function as communication links between higher and lower management, must have strong human relations skills. Their proximity to the top may also trigger the need to develop strong conceptual skills. These skills, however, must be balanced against the functional skills essential for middle management decision making at the unit or division level. These differences reflect variations in skills that are important to support the distinct responsibilities of the managers. It is important for managers at all levels, however, to ensure that the eight universal leadership roles described above are manifested in their behaviors.
For example, managers at all levels perform the Monitor role. First-level managers use short range scheduling, expense budgets, operations management, and measurement tools to oversee the activities of subordinates and meet performance targets specified by upper-level management. Top managers are engaged more in reading and evaluating financial statements and reports, and are concerned with strategic planning and control systems to meet performance and profit targets at the organization level. Mid-level managers, on the other hand, are involved more in functional deployment and intermediate planning, and frequently use output control systems to monitor the activities of lower levels. Thus, managers at all levels perform the role of a Monitor, but with different nuances and range of objectives. Their scope of activities, again, is also different, with top managers focusing more on broader issues and concerns as well as shaping and controlling business and financial performance and responding to stakeholders' concerns. Mid-level managers pay more attention to internal processes, functional interfaces, and how first-level managers handle the details of subordinates' performance. As managers move up the chain of command, and as they become removed from the points of impact at which the specific information about customers, performance, etc. exists, they typically rely more on interpretation of the details rather than keeping track of the details themselves (DiPadova & Faerman, 1993). These differences are crucial for the functioning of the organization, since they provide the foundation for effective organizational integration. The three levels appear as part of a means-ends chain of objectives: Accomplishing the goals of lower levels serves as a means to achieve the goals of higher levels.
How similar or different is the perceived importance of the eight CVF roles performed by managers across levels? To answer this question, Belasen (1998) studied the perceptions of managers across vertical lines of four different organizations. The results from one of these organizations are reported below.
The studies used a survey-based methodology, Managerial Leadership and Hierarchy Study, which was developed by Drs. Sue Faerman and Laurie DiPadova (1995) to explore differences in role expectations at each of the three managerial levels: upper, middle, and first-level. The survey, designed around the Competing Values Framework of Managerial Leadership, demonstrates the efficacy of the Competing Values Framework as a common language for managers across hierarchical levels. The study included samples of managers from organizations in different industries: banking, telecommunications, power lab, and dining services. After acceptance of the study by either the human resource director or vice president of the sampled company was achieved, a packet with a personal cover letter was sent to each participant in the study explaining the request for participation.
The survey was divided into three parts. Part I requested information regarding demographics: gender, highest educational level completed, office title, and years of service with the organization. Part II, Section A, asked each manager to answer ten questions focusing upon how managers view themselves in the context of the organization. Section B contained four questions asking each manager to rate how their peers are different from their direct reports. The areas of focus for these questions were education, income, and commitment to one's job and to the organization. Part III focused on the similarities and differences of managerial tasks and responsibilities in managerial work across the three organizational hierarchy levels. Section A contained measures associated with the eight roles portrayed in the Competing Values Framework: Producer, Director, Coordinator, Monitor, Mentor, Facilitator, Innovator, and Broker. First, managers were asked to consider the importance of the various tasks and responsibilities at their level of the hierarchy, using a scale of 0 (Not Applicable) to 5 (Absolutely Essential). Then, each participant was asked, using the same scale, to rate the other two managerial levels by responding to the same items. Section B provided definitions of the eight roles of the Competing Values Framework. Each manager was asked to indicate the overall perception of the importance of each role as applied to each of the three levels of management, again using the same scale.
In total, thirty surveys were distributed to managers across the hierarchical levels within the bank's sales division in a large metropolitan area. Of the 30 distributed surveys, 21 surveys were returned, representing a 70% response rate. Average scores and standard deviations for each role at each management level were calculated and t-tests (not reported here) were conducted to verify whether the differences between the samples' means were statistically significant. Tables 2 through 5 display a summary of top characteristics associated with the enactment of the various roles across hierarchical levels. Top characteristics were determined by ranking least standard deviations with the top five averages for each characteristic for each role. One central finding of these surveys is that there are many striking similarities in the importance of the roles played by managers at different levels. While we have assumed the applicability of the Competing Values Framework across levels of the hierarchy, this study supports the findings of DiPadova (1995) and presents empirical evidence of parallels in perceptual views of leadership roles across levels. Overall, the evidence suggests that at each level managers were able to identify with all eight roles of the Competing Values Framework.
Table 1. Rational Goal Model: Similarities and Differences in Motivating Others and Goal Setting
All Managerial Levels
Maintains a high level of energy, motivation and effort Makes important work decisions
Motivates others
Sets goals
Motivates others Sets objectives for accomplishing goals
Defines roles and expectations for employees
Focuses on results and accomplishments Assigns priorities among multiple goals
Gets others to excel in their work
Uses time and stress management strategies
to handle delays and interruptions
Creates high performance expectations Garners support for goals from
in others managers at lower levels
Focuses on results and accomplishments
In motivating employees, considers
their individual differences
Creates high performance expectations Establishes context for decision making
in others at lower levels
In motivating employees, considers
their individual differences
Gets others to excel in their work
Table 2. Internal Process Model: Similarities and Differences in Controlling the Work and Tracking Details
All Managerial Levels
Ensures that work is going according Disseminates information regarding
to schedule policies and procedures
Reallocates resources to accommodate Relies on reports from others
Coordinates tasks and people Assures flow of information among
necessary personnel and units
Sets up and maintains necessary
communication channels
Anticipates workflow problems Oversees compliance with procedures
Plans workload adjustments as needed
Anticipates workflow problems Interprets financial and statistical
Schedules workflow of tasks and projects reports
Determines subordinate's assignments Carefully reviews the work of others
based on individual skills and abilities
Coordinates units as well as individual employees
Table 3. Human Relations Model: Similarities and Differences in Dealing with Employees' Problems and Enhancing Employee Participation
All Managerial Levels
Gives credit to subordinates for their work Works to enhance employee
and ideas participation
Maintains an open, approachable and Creates a cohesive work climate in
understanding attitude towards subordinates the organization
Takes a personal interest in employees Creates a sense of belonging to the
Helps employees work toward and prepare Fosters a sense of team work among
for promotion employees
Does on-the-job training Facilitates and leads meetings
Does on-the-job training Fosters a sense of team work among
Creates opportunities for lower level managers employees
to challenge themselves Involves subordinates in discussion
over work matters
Advises lower level managers on how to Involves subordinates in discussions
handle difficult employee situations over work matters
Creates opportunities for lower level managers Facilitates and leads meetings
to challenge themselves
Table 4. Open Systems Model: Similarities and Differences in Managing Change and Negotiation Skills
All Managerial Levels
Supports changes imposed on organization Nurtures contacts with people external
even when disagreeing with the changes to the organization
Builds coalitions and networks among
Represents the unit to clients and
Turns problems into opportunities Interacts with people outside the
Encourages creativity among employees organization
Helps employees deal with ambiguity and delay Presents ideas to managers at higher
Helps subordinates see the positive aspects of evels
new changes
Turns problems into opportunities Represents the unit to others in the
Helps employees deal with ambiguity and delay organization
Assesses the potential impact of proposed changes
Comes up with ideas for improving the organization
Assesses the potential impact of proposed changes Represents the unit to others in the
Encourages creativity among employees organization
Personally helps individual employees adjust to Exerts lateral and upward influence in
changes in the organization the organization
Helps subordinates see the positive aspects of
new changes
Managers at all levels appear to share similar concerns and have similar understandings of the importance of all managerial leadership roles, with the exception of the Coordinator and Monitor roles, which appeared to be less important for upper-level management. The Rational Goal Model shows a greater alignment with characteristics that make up the Director role, such as making important decisions and setting goals. Within the Internal Processes Model, there appears to be greater consistency among all hierarchical levels regarding the responsibilities manifested in the behaviors of managers performing the Monitor role (i.e., disseminating information and assuring flow of information across the business unit). Consistent views are apparent regarding the characteristics of the Mentor and Facilitator roles in the Human Relations Model (i.e., give credit to subordinates for work and ideas, and work to enhance employee participation). Similarly, in the Open Systems Model, the Broker and the Innovator roles appeared to be quite important for the performance of managers across all management levels.
Developing Managerial Competence: The Corporate Experience
Sendelbach (1993) described a variety of management training and development activities based on the Competing Values Framework used by Ford Motor Company. First, the framework has been used to map out an aggregate profile of Ford's culture at significant points in time. For example, in the early days of Ford Motor Company, there was much focus on the rational goal quadrant with its emphasis on maximizing operating efficiency and outputs through mass production. The open systems quadrant was equally important due to the need to innovate and increase market share. Since the financial controls and measures were less important, the documentation and management information systems were minimal. Likewise, the premium placed on the values of the human relations quadrant was relatively low.
Ford was geared in its early stage of development toward production, and management primarily used scientific principles and economic incentives to increase productivity. Later, and especially during the 1950s, the company's profile shifted to reflect a predominant emphasis on control, monitoring, information systems, and measurement associated with the internal processes quadrant. This analysis provided participants in the training program with an opportunity to explore leadership styles and decision making processes within the historical context of evolution and change.
Since the 1970s Ford has experienced tremendous change and competition both domestically and internationally. The old bureaucratic structure with its emphasis on stability and control was no longer suited to deal with the volatility of the environment. The need was for a more responsive and involved workforce and greater innovation and creativity. The learning aspects of profiling the emergence of different cultures within the company, with different weights given to different values, involved developing a full understanding of organizational needs and the strategies required for improvement. An analysis of the overall profile, for example, concluded that while improvements in the internal processes quadrant may be possible, the necessary shift is a reduction in emphasis placed on elements within that quadrant and a relative increase in emphasis on the open systems quadrant. Thus, managers can use the model to map out their current needs and match them against the existing organizational capabilities to determine the direction of change.
Another area for applying the Competing Values Framework at Ford involved the impact of cross-functional relations on the overall operation of the company. The profile of the perceived functional stereotype completed by managers of that function provided them with the opportunity to test their assumptions as to how others perceive them. Managers of functional units were also asked to use the framework to depict the gap between how they currently view themselves versus how they should be operating. Sendelbach (1993) summarized the significance of that learning: "Functional groups do not always have a good understanding as to how they are perceived by the organization. Their 'now' profile may be seen as too optimistic by other functions. They may be told that they have not made as much progress as they think they have. They may also hear that they do not have as clear a conception of what the rest of the company needs from their function as they report in their 'should' profile" (pp. 86-87).
Moving from the organizational and unit level, the third level of training and learning activities at Ford was applied to the managerial leadership level. The method permitted managers to conduct assessments of their own managerial profiles against the managerial practices and personal values embedded in the CVF. Participants were asked to respond to behavioral statements ranging on a scale of one to seven, from totally uncharacteristic to totally characteristic in relation to how they perceive their actual behaviors and in relation to how they think they should behave. The underlying assumption of this intervention was that via the process of self-assessment, managers will be able to identify essential managerial skills and competencies required for effective job performance. Still, another objective was to help them discover values and attitudes, determine professional goals and needs, and guide themselves through a process of self-directed learning. Ultimately, the objective of this program was to help managers build confidence in their ability to learn a method for assessing management related knowledge and abilities, diagnose their own strengths and weaknesses, and formulate plans for skills development.
As Sendelbach (1993) pointed out, the real key to this learning process was to have the participants examine the difference between the score they gave themselves in the "is now" section and their score in the "should be" section. Participants then calculated the "gap scores" -- the difference between the now and should be scores. Two types of gaps are common: one describes an increase from the current level of behavior, while in the other the desired behavior is seen as a reduction of the current behavior. The information from the self-assessment has been valuable in helping participants maintain an overall perspective or "optimal" balance, rather than focusing only on one single dimension to improve their managerial competence.
The assessment tool described above is typically used to diagnose the alignment between a person's skills level and his or her perceptions of the roles and responsibilities that are manifested in his or her managerial leadership behavior. At Ford, participants were also asked to compare the ratings of their self-assessment against the aggregate profile of the work unit to have a sense of the "degree of fit" or compatibility between the individual profile and the aggregate. Although useful in "measuring the gap" between the personal and work unit profiles, this measurement is not without limitations. First, the ratings are based on perceptions that could be influenced by self-serving biases and, therefore, could skew the results. A radar assessment, such as the one described below, as well as measurements conducted at multiple points in time, which also include concurrent ratings of "now" versus "then" as a post-assessment, can respond quite effectively to this challenge. Second, any assessment should take into account work and job (specialization) characteristics. As Sendelbach (1993) pointed out: "The results from a participant engaged in advanced scientific research should probably look different in profile than the results from a participant in manufacturing" (p.88).
Differences in ratings between people with different work experiences may be a result of the length of time spent in managing people. Naturally, a person who begins to work in a managerial capacity for the first time may have different values and a different level of intensity than a person who has been managing the same work unit for over two decades. Finally, people may have different understandings about the future direction of the organization and the work unit. Such understandings may lead to different perceptions about the current and future needs and goals of the organization, and consequently, to the adoption of different leadership styles and managerial practices. Nevertheless, according to Sendelbach (1993), the idea was to provide participants with important clues about how they see themselves as "measured" against the profile of the work unit as seen by the compiled assessment of everyone participating in the program. This also provided participants with a fuller scope of the evolution of their work unit and an understanding of emergent structural and social dynamics processes at different points in time.
By understanding the process of organization life cycles and the shifting criteria of organizational effectiveness (Quinn & Cameron, 1984), as well as the need for differing managerial profiles for different situations, participants were able to compare their assessment of what they believe their work unit profile should be and make subsequent adjustments to their managerial styles and behaviors. Often managers may find that a misfit exists between what they think they should become and what the work unit needs. This gap may trigger a chain of events aimed at modifying the work unit needs or readjusting the existing managerial practices in order to reduce the gap. Creating the dual profiles of both a personal behavior set and the work unit that is the context for the behaviors provides a rich database from which to consider action planning (Sendelbach, 1993). One example of such action planning is illustrated through the methodology developed by Faerman and Belasen (Belasen, 1998) for senior level managers.
Assessment of managerial competencies can help improve organizational communication, support corporate vision, and enhance corporate overall performance. The intervention program described above is particularly useful in stimulating organizational learning and self-improvement. Interventions such as those described above help managers develop ways to communicate more effectively within and across divisions, allowing for increased sharing of best practices. Personal and corporate self-evaluation can help managers diagnose their roles and skills, identify strengths and weaknesses, and develop action plans for improvement breakthroughs. At the personal level, assessments enable managers to experience an increase in personal productivity, and improvement in interpersonal communication, decision making, and problem solving practices. It is expected that managers will have higher confidence in their communication abilities and skills, and greater proficiency in dealing with employees, customers, and executives. Managers who use the CVF assessment procedures reportedly develop better understanding across managerial and functional lines and work together as a management team. At the corporate level managers are able to develop a shared understanding of the core leadership competencies required to support organizational capabilities and business growth strategies.
The inherently contradictory nature of organizations is addressed by the Competing Values Framework (CVF) and by the different role behaviors expected from managers. Some of the roles seem to be opposing in that they reflect the conflicting and, at times, mutually exclusive organizational effectiveness criteria. Since managers and leaders presumably are effective within an organizational context, it is particularly important to look at organizational effectiveness criteria when assessing the performance of managerial leadership. But perhaps one of the most important benefits of using the CVF lies in enabling managers to increase their self-awareness about the strengths and weaknesses associated with playing the eight universal roles. Thus, the utility of the framework as an effective medium aimed at aligning managers' values and roles within and outside the chain of command is immeasurable.
While organizational leaders are expected to stabilize the system, they are also challenged to adjust the existing structural arrangements and patterned behaviors and to ask frame-breaking questions. Managers must send consistent messages and align strategy with structure, but must never allow the organization to settle into complacency. As soon as "balance" is achieved, it must be destroyed. Managers must have the cognitive complexity and behavioral flexibility that will allow them to shift from one paradigm to another and thus to effectively manage paradoxes and optimize performance.
The Competing Values Framework is a powerful integrative model that is rooted in the contradictory criteria of effectiveness that describe managerial leadership. Hence, mapping out the repertoire of leadership roles essential to dealing with paradoxes, and assessing and developing requisite managerial competencies are important strategic human resource goals. Assessing current managerial competencies and future organizational needs is an important strategic staffing function that can enable top managers to align organizational capabilities with business strategy. The CVF, as a powerful theoretical construct with applications that feature supervisory roles and competencies (Quinn, Faerman, Thompson, & McGrath, 1996), corporate downsizing and middle management (Belasen, Benke, DiPadova, & Fortunato, 1996), business performance and top executives (Hart & Quinn, 1993), empowered organizations and self-managed teams (Belasen, 1997), is useful in identifying a cluster of competencies around strategic business goals and organizing organizational capabilities to meet future organizational needs. The difference between low performance organizations and high performance organizations could rest in the quality of managerial leadership and its ability to respond quickly to external changes and internal organizational dynamics.
Enhancing the quality of managerial leadership is essential for building, transferring, and leveraging organizational learning and intellectual capital. Identifying, developing, and integrating critical competencies to support learning and designing human resource systems that promote and reward competency-based management education is a strategy that can advance the competitive advantage of the organization. The CVF provides human resource officers with a logical and consistent assessment model to identify weaknesses and strengths of managers and groups and design programs to close potential gaps. Through a combination of assessing and developing managerial competency, human resource officers can create more opportunities to build a winning organization.
Belasen, A. (2000). Leading the learning organization: Communication and competencies for managing change. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press (forthcoming).
Belasen, A. (1997). An application of the competing values framework to self-managed teams. In Rahim, A. M., Golembieski, R. T., & Pate, L. E. (Eds.), Current Topics in Management, Vol. 2, (79-111). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press Inc.
Belasen, A. T., Benke, M., DiPadova, L. N., & Fortunato, V. M. (1996). Downsizing and the hypereffective manager: The shifting importance of managerial roles during organizational transformation. Human Resource Management Journal,35(1), 87-117.
DiPadova, L. N. (1995). Managerial leadership and organizational hierarchy: An exploration of the similarities and differences in managerial roles at hierarchical levels. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Rockefeller College, University at Albany, State University of New York.
DiPadova, L. N., & Faerman, S. R. (1993). Using the competing values framework to facilitate managerial understanding across levels of organizational hierarchy. Human Resource Management, 32(1), 143-174.
Hart, S. L. & Quinn, R. E. (1993). Roles executives play: CEOs, behavioral complexity, and firm performance. Human Relations,46, 543-574.
Morgan, G. (1993). Imaginization: Theartofcreativemanagement. Newbury Park: Sage.
Peters, T. (1987). Thriving on chaos. New York: Knopf.
Quinn, R. E. & Cameron, K. S. (1984). Organizational life cycles and the criteria of effectiveness. Management Science, 29, 33-51.
Quinn, R. E., Faerman, S. R., Thompson, M. P., & McGrath, M. R. (1996). Becoming a master manager: A competency framework. New York: Wiley.
Sendelbach, N. B. (1993). The competing values framework for management training and development: A tool for understanding complex issues and tasks. Human Resource Management, 32(1), 75-99.
Stroh, P. & Miller, W. W. (1994). Learning to thrive on paradox. Training & Development, September, 28-39.
Solution Preview
Paradoxes and Leadership Roles Developing Managerial Competence
My Experience in regard to Performance Paradox
The statement given in the paper "Managers know what to do to improve performance, but actually ignore or act in contradiction to either their strongest instincts or to the data available to them" is quite true (Belasen, n.d.). Being a Manager of electronic component manufacturing, I also experienced this situation a number of times. Throughout my work experience in organization, a number of times I confronted this situation, in which I was aware that what can be done to improve performance but ignored it because of the pressure or data made available by my management.
One such instance, I remember regarding performance paradox was a situation of profit decline. Once our organization continued to function substantially for five years but after that period of growth it started losing some of its product lines. To compensate its product line loss the company attempted new ventures and tried to increase its customer base. With these decisions, in a short period of time several new customers were added to the company. This assisted the company in increasing its sales but with this, its profit declined and it was due to existing performance paradoxes.
The trend of increasing company's customer base went on steadily but net profit also persisted to decrease day by day. Finally, when the reason behind the problem was evaluated every manager said that we think we have too many inappropriate customers. Some of them said that addition in customers is increasing company's indirect costs ...
Solution Summary
How managers know how to improve performance is determined. The paradoxes and leadership roles are examined.


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| MedWetCoast Trains its NGO Partners on Project Management
Thursday 24 November 2005, by Inju Galal
Within its continuous effort to support Non Governmental Organizations NGOs in implementing the management plan projects, MedWetCoast-Egypt conducted a training workshop to train NGOs' boards of directors on project management.
The workshop was held in the Omayed vicinity on 2 -3 July, 2004. Around 25 board members of three local NGOs attended.
The workshop was designed to acquaint NGOs' board members with basic skills and knowledge of project management. It addressed the issues of project planning, hierarchy, budget and time planning, project monitoring and appraisal, as well as project sustainability. It also trained participants on communication, leadership, negotiation, organizational and motivational skills.
This is the third training workshop MedWetCoast holds for NGOs. The first took place in Zaranik, in July 2004. The second took place in Omayed, in October 2004. Both workshops had been dedicated to acquaint NGOs' board members with basic skills and knowledge of NGO management.
MedWetCoast's interest in NGOs arises from the fact that they ensure grass-root involvement and sustainability after the project's termination. Out of this belief MedWetCoast had helped establish and support several NGOs in its protectorates. It had also partnered with them in implementing the management plan activities in their respective protectorates.
Inju Galal
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