ABSTRACT
For several years, the author has run a bimonthly network meeting for senior organizational development practitioners and other managers in central London. At one such session, the people were each invited to write a brief narrative on an experience that had struck the reader in some way, and which had left some residual feelings and/or recollections that might merit further exploration. Over recent decades, the notion and ideology of “managerialism” has come to define what ‘proper management’ is supposed to look like. However, nothing at all happens “in general”. Everything that takes place does so at a specific time, within a specific context, between specific people, and so on. The use of measurement as a central aspect of management practice is well-established. Ultimately, it is in the give-and-take of everyday interaction that the capacity exists for new patterns to form and changes in perspective and practice to emerge.
