A different perspective

Cretans are fiercely proud of their country and maintain a powerful regional identity. As in so many places, the tourists seem to huddle around the centre of the resort with its pseudo-sophisticated bars and clubs, while a few hundred metres up a side road will take you to a timeless village.

The simplicity of Crete - the gleaming white walls and the dominant sky-blue paint of the chairs, tables and woodwork in many of the little tavernas are in stark contrast to the neon and clutter of the tourist centres.

The waiter in the village taverna was almost at his wits' end. One evening he pleaded with us: "What has happened to my country? Where can I find the Crete of my childhood?"

And there's the rub! We can no longer expect things to stay the same, even for a few short years between youth and adulthood. Change happens regardless and change is accelerating.

My next book in the Tork & Grunt series, on the subject of Change Management, is proving to be a fascinating challenge and I needed the break and the perspective of my isolation in Crete to work out the detail of my approach to the subject.

What I'm finding difficult is not the theory, but the fact that the more I research the subject, the more I come face to face with the realisation that in essence - it's communication, and while some traditional management communication has been about maintaining status and authority, what I am talking about is genuine exploratory communication that gets to the core of the matter and establishes the reality of the situation, not the gloss behind which people - managers, operatives, directors or senior executives, can hide....

It's really so frighteningly simple....