INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this website is to develop a set of policy statements which I wish UK Governments would follow.

I believe that given a favourable Government climate that technology can solve most of the key issues facing our nation and indeed the world. 

Clear thinking about the human activity systems involved will be needed.  Great care to avoid unintended consequences is essential.  It does seem that at last young students in the UK are turning to technology in theri higher education rather than the soft skills subjects, where ther cannot be enough well-paid jobs to recoup their costs of learning.

Design is also important.  That is why we have a page on that one aspect.  Germany is a great exporter, because it manufactures well from great designs.  The tide here is once again turning in favour of the developed world.  More and more design and manufacture is computer assisted.  China's wage costs are beginning to rise and markets demand rapid response to highly customised products, quickly.  We need to have short supplies lines and rapid response to customer's demands.

Turning to a differnet influence on my throughts. 

Presenting is a skill worth acquiring. I went to a course on presentation early in my career and I always try to emulate the skills of that teacher presenter, whose name I still remember - Clay Hardisty - although he was never famous.

He said that the first thing to assess is to “know your audience”. What are their characteristics, in age, skills and interests?  You need to plan your presentation to hit the median of the audience. The extremes of the audience will in general be too difficult to address without compromising the interest of the majority.

The second vital skill is to “gain their attention”. Trainers see to it, if they can, that their participants are away from their place of work and that their phones are switched off.  With meetings in the office this is more difficult to achieve, so other devices may be needed.  These can be what you say, how you say it, how you look and many more. This man Hardisty commenced by saying how thrilled he was as an American at coming to the UK. He gave the reasons that Britain was a great country, as they invented TV and the Americans developed and exploited it, the British invented penicillin and the Americans used it to cure disease, the British invented the jet engine and Americans had the faster planes. At this point someone stirred and said that he had not come to hear his country decried by an American.

“Now that I have got your attention I will begin” retorted Mr. Hardisty!

This is an extract from my “Systems Thinking Analysis” Manual.  An abstract is available on the 20CC website:  www.20cc.co.uk/downloads/

My consultancy experience is shown on www.20cc.co.uk. I welcome comments on this site to norman.harris@20cc.co.uk. 

For opinions of the day please have a look at my blog Norman on the News.

Boards & Committees Norman Harris serves on:

  • ·     Chair of Trustees - Turnpike Hill Trust, a 311 unit private estate, with a annual spend of £264k
  • ·     European Managing Director – Society of Piping Designers & Engineers (SPED)
  • ·     Past Chair - IMechE Process Industries Board, 14,000 member Division
  • ·     Past Chair - IMechE Pharmaceutical Committee
  • ·     Member of the IMechE Energy & Environment Theme Steering Group