Structural engineering
I’ve been puzzling over a potential future problem that the ATBA-UK might face at some time in the future for a while now. What if people who hold prominent/vital positions on the committee resigned and no one wanted to take their place?
For a long time I thought it was a people problem. A problem that could be solved by simply finding (or sometimes making) the right people. But the problem states that there aren’t any people, so that can’t be the solution.
Eventually I started thinking outside the box and looking at the problem with a wider perspective. Maybe, rather than solve the problem, I could use the problem to make changes to the system that the problem was occurring in and make the system stronger at the same time.
The committee has a hierarchical structure. It is organised, like many traditional companies, with a single person at the top who has ultimate control over and responsibility for the running of the company, and various levels of people with diminishing levels of power and responsibility beneath. This structure, and the roles contained within it, is cemented as fundamental to the organisation in the constitution. And because of that, the positions that make up the committee have to be filled, even if there are no people or the people we have don’t have the right skills for the job.
So, if we were to change the way the organisation is structured, we could not only remove the lack of people problem, we could make the ATBA-UK stronger and more able to adapt to changes more quickly. We could do away the hierarchical structure and use a flat structure, which places every person at the same level of responsibility and means the committee can shrink and grow as required. There would be a number of roles, which match the operational requirements, and could be added to as the ATBA-UK undertakes new work. These roles could be filled by a single person, by multiple people, or split up with different people undertaking different parts of the work of that role.
I don’t know if these changes will ever be implemented but I really enjoyed thinking outside the box to come up with this solution.