That’s Not How We Do It Here! A Story about How Organizations Rise and Fall – and Can Rise Again.
John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber (2016)
The authors from Harvard Business School present vital tips to leaders and managers everywhere. Through an animal fable, the book demonstrates how to turn challenges into opportunities. The story is set in Kalahari, Southern Africa, where a clan of 150 meerkats settled in a fertile valley are growing steadily in numbers and are prospering. They possess a well-oiled bureaucracy, with set conventions and rules to follow. Unexpectedly a drought destroys the food resources and vultures invade. The old system is shaken up; the clan, unprepared to meet the unpredictable, begins to fall apart, engaging in blame and unable to seek out solutions. Disagreements mount even on routine matters. Solutions suggested by experienced front-line workers are rejected from the top with the response: “That’s not how we do it here!” When there is a dearth of new ideas, Nadia an adventurous meerkat leaves in search of novel ideas to solve the problems. She is joined by her friend Ayo, who is chastised for violating the existing procedures of guard duty when he tries the revolutionary idea of climbing trees to watch out for predatory invasions. The two find other groups of meerkats who seem to be running things well and differently from their own. Some groups are just like theirs, in different states of disintegration. They meet Matt a rover who has left his clan. He seeks out a dynamic, small clan apparently doing well. Under the leadership of Lena, this group is devising new ways of combating the drought situation, turning challenges into opportunities and have developed creative solutions to meet the challenges of food and danger from vultures. Their small group is thriving in team work, organizational flexibility and innovation. However, as the clan grows, Nadia witnesses how they too begin to break down owing to a lack of a structure suited for an expanding group. Visionary leadership was not enough. Nadia has a discussion with Lena sharing her observations. With the insights learned she returns to her clan, hoping to rebuild it, combining visionary leadership smartness, discipline, creativity stability and innovation. The book concludes with a study of the nature of “management” and the nature of “leadership”, how they are related and yet different.
Light Through the Bars: Understanding and Rethinking South Africa’s Prisons
by Fr Babychan Arackathara (2019)
Fr Babychen’s book derives from his experience of prison ministry in some of the most notorious prisons in South Africa. It takes the readers inside prisons and close to prisoners, erasing our stereotyped notions about criminals and convicts and helping to change the way we think of prison communities. The author started his mission in1998 in Mariental Namibia and the 20 years of his work experience comes alive in this brilliant, haunting book rousing our empathy towards those condemned to languish in the dark despair of prison cells. Archbishop William Slattery, head of prison outreach at Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference comments: “Father Babychan has brought the light of the Good News to people who are often the most abandoned and forgotten. His work has given hope, repentance and a new beginning to many of our brothers and sisters.” Criminals are human. No one is born a criminal. Criminality is a demonstration of the brokenness of society as the stories of the convicts show. These stories can be treated as case studies for those who might engage in prison ministry – a veritable guidebook to touch troubled souls in prison. Through the six chapters, the author looks at all aspects of human criminality. He notes that everything begins in our families. Broken families produce broken people who may turn to crime. A close look inside prisons raises the question whether they do, in fact, offer correction, education and opportunities for rehabilitation, or are merely “schools for crime”. Simple supportive tools such as listening to them can bring change in the prison cultures and initiate rehabilitation. The current models of punitive justice need to be replaced by restorative justice which is truly beneficial to the offenders as well as their victims. Reintegration is the most challenging task before all ex-offenders as they rejoin society, hoping not to be shunned by their families and communities. A list of practical suggestions for the problems observed during his prison ministry concludes the narrative.
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