The PM and the Peter Principle

If you've read other posts on this site you'll know that they're all related - sometimes fairly loosely - to the fact that women's competences are under-recognised and under-rewarded. This is what I call the Paula Principle, and it's the simple mirror image of the much much more famous, 50-year-old Peter Principle, that "every employee is promoted to his [sic] level of incompetence." (The 'his' was of course used in those days as a universal; it had specific relevance in the case of Prof Peter's thesis, as only one of his 20-odd individual case studies was a woman: Miss Totland, an excellent primary teacher but a poor school inspector because…
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Rebel Ideas

I've just read Matthew Syed's Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking. It's an excellent read - Matthew certainly knows how to take a single point and construct a readable chapter around it. The main argument, as the subtitle says, is to promote diversity - making sure that groups contain sufficient variety of background and thinking to achieve the best results. The book has a good range of examples, from scientific innovation to mountaineering to national intelligence. The overall argument is very convincing. 'Recombinant' innovation, which draws different ideas and disciplines together, can be so much more powerful than incremental progress. Permitting the expression of dissent can be a crucial…
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Covid19 and its implications for the PP

Blog Other things being equal it seems that men may be harder hit by Covid physically – a higher proportion are affected and die.   (If that’s for genetic reasons it prompts fairly hairy speculation about the likely impact of future pandemics - no space for that here.)  But other things aren’t equal.   For a start women are more likely to be key workers, and therefore more exposed to health risks.   It’s also been pretty clear for a while  the economic impact will be tougher on women, at least in the first instance.   As usual, the Resolution Foundation has come up with speedy analysis.  Their report sums it up: Our overall finding is that 36 per cent of…
Read More

The PM and the Peter Principle

If you've read other posts on this site you'll know that they're all related - sometimes fairly loosely - to the fact that women's competences are under-recognised and under-rewarded. This is what I call the Paula Principle, and it's the simple mirror image of the much much more famous, 50-year-old Peter Principle, that "every employee is promoted to his [sic] level of incompetence." (The 'his' was of course used in those days as a universal; it had specific relevance in the case of Prof Peter's thesis, as only one of his 20-odd individual case studies was a woman: Miss Totland, an excellent primary teacher but a poor school inspector because…
Read More

Rebel Ideas

I've just read Matthew Syed's Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking. It's an excellent read - Matthew certainly knows how to take a single point and construct a readable chapter around it. The main argument, as the subtitle says, is to promote diversity - making sure that groups contain sufficient variety of background and thinking to achieve the best results. The book has a good range of examples, from scientific innovation to mountaineering to national intelligence. The overall argument is very convincing. 'Recombinant' innovation, which draws different ideas and disciplines together, can be so much more powerful than incremental progress. Permitting the expression of dissent can be a crucial…
Read More

Covid19 and its implications for the PP

Blog Other things being equal it seems that men may be harder hit by Covid physically – a higher proportion are affected and die.   (If that’s for genetic reasons it prompts fairly hairy speculation about the likely impact of future pandemics - no space for that here.)  But other things aren’t equal.   For a start women are more likely to be key workers, and therefore more exposed to health risks.   It’s also been pretty clear for a while  the economic impact will be tougher on women, at least in the first instance.   As usual, the Resolution Foundation has come up with speedy analysis.  Their report sums it up: Our overall finding is that 36 per cent of…
Read More

The PM and the Peter Principle

If you've read other posts on this site you'll know that they're all related - sometimes fairly loosely - to the fact that women's competences are under-recognised and under-rewarded. This is what I call the Paula Principle, and it's the simple mirror image of the much much more famous, 50-year-old Peter Principle, that "every employee is promoted to his [sic] level of incompetence." (The 'his' was of course used in those days as a universal; it had specific relevance in the case of Prof Peter's thesis, as only one of his 20-odd individual case studies was a woman: Miss Totland, an excellent primary teacher but a poor school inspector because…
Read More

Rebel Ideas

I've just read Matthew Syed's Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking. It's an excellent read - Matthew certainly knows how to take a single point and construct a readable chapter around it. The main argument, as the subtitle says, is to promote diversity - making sure that groups contain sufficient variety of background and thinking to achieve the best results. The book has a good range of examples, from scientific innovation to mountaineering to national intelligence. The overall argument is very convincing. 'Recombinant' innovation, which draws different ideas and disciplines together, can be so much more powerful than incremental progress. Permitting the expression of dissent can be a crucial…
Read More

Covid19 and its implications for the PP

Blog Other things being equal it seems that men may be harder hit by Covid physically – a higher proportion are affected and die.   (If that’s for genetic reasons it prompts fairly hairy speculation about the likely impact of future pandemics - no space for that here.)  But other things aren’t equal.   For a start women are more likely to be key workers, and therefore more exposed to health risks.   It’s also been pretty clear for a while  the economic impact will be tougher on women, at least in the first instance.   As usual, the Resolution Foundation has come up with speedy analysis.  Their report sums it up: Our overall finding is that 36 per cent of…
Read More