ASSET MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE SERVICE DELIVERY: “We get a wide variety of education and skill sets on Councils and Boards often with very different interests. This makes communications complex and challenging,” stated Christina Benty, a former mayor of Golden in southeast British Columbia (Winter 2024 issue of Asset Management BC Newsletter)
NOTE TO READER:
The Winter 2024 issue of the Asset Management BC Newsletter includes an essay written by Christina Benty. She reflects on an article by Wally Wells in the Fall 2023 edition of the newsletter wherein he wrote about the value and significance of thinking and working both vertically and horizontally across all disciplines and functions. This got Christina pondering the message from one of her favorite books by the late David Foster Wallace which starts with a humorous parable about perspective.
What do we know and How do we work?
“There are two young fish swimming along who happen to meet an older fish. The older fish nods at them and says: ‘Morning boys, how’s the water?’ The two young fish swim on for a bit and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and asks: ‘What the hell is water?’ The story begs the question, what makes the older fish so much wiser?” quoted Christina Benty.
“We must infer that it is his experience. That is, the older fish only knows about water because he’s been either outside the fishbowl or in many different fishbowls. This got me thinking about the most recent reflections by Robert Hicks in his latest article in the WaterBucket.”
“His observations lead him to conclude that solutions to complex problems require deep knowledge, and that organizational and intergenerational amnesia can only be overcome through deep knowledge transfer. This does not happen in silos; it happens in a learning organization that embraces systems thinking. This approach is less concerned with vertical and horizontal thinking and sees interconnectedness of the whole system; it knows that water it is swimming in.”
TO LEARN MORE:
To read the complete article, download the Winter 2024 issue of the Asset Management BC Newsletter.
