(The Jakarta Post, 11 October 2006)
“A great seminar culture prevails – a seminar culture, which, although conducive for networking, information sharing, debates and discussions, is also contributing to inertia and disconnect.
A disconnect between the environment of seminars (cozy, congenial and optimistic) and the realities on the ground (often harsher, requiring hard decisions and urgency of action). Inertia also from the endless seminar debates that delay action on small but concrete steps that form the basis for real change.
There is a clear downside to the seminar culture in which working papers become a substitute for work, when grand designs and objectives replace mundane but real issues and when the open-ended nature of discussions supercedes the importance of closure and implementation.”
“Perhaps it is also timely to start acting on prescriptions rather than to only continue talking about diagnosis. Also focus on the quality of the broth rather than on the many cooks and stirrers.”
