Time in Syria

The longer I work here the more abandoned hulks of initiatives and projects I see scattered around the landscape. The culture here is one in which projects - however worthy - get bogged down very quickly and find themselves expending energy going through the motions but making no progress. Then people lose interest, get resigned to failure, and another project comes in to claim attention, blazing brightly in the sky for a while before it too burns out. This has created a high degree of self-fulfilling cynicism amongst people at large; they don't expect the grand claims and big promises ever to be fulfilled. The "system" here is ludicrously complex and designed to create employment for officials through innumerable petty obstacles, rather than to get things done. It's a model of how to make things inefficient. It would be nice to think that a project for the First Lady could cut through all of this crap, but perversely she is committed to do things by the book. I can see her point, but sadly the book is part of the problem. In fact it is the problem.

So my overriding management emphasis, and the mantra with while I plan to drive the is project is: we don't stop, ever. Momentum, forward movement, is everything, because as soon as we stop we will get bogged down and fade away. we will all have jobs but we will be doing nothing. Results, not promises, are what matter, so we must continually look for quick wins to demonstrate that we are making a difference and providing value. This resolution means that if necessary we will cut corners and bend the rules if it means the difference between keeping going and coming to a halt. But don't tell the client!

Labels: Massar