Start Time: 10:10

Location: Suite Sunningdale

Speaker:

Sjon Stellinga - Alderman of Achtkarspelen, NL, and consultant, specialized in labour law related issues and organizational development.

Summary:

The contribution of Sjon Stellinga, titled ‘stop doing the wrong things even better’ focuses on the ‘rural custom’ to do things right. What those things are is defined by a strange kind of common sense, fed by local history and by a traditional approach that is more or less common in geographically, socially and culturally isolated areas.

If this ‚Äòdoing things right‚Äô seems not to be successful, then …. we do things even better. Strangely enough, we never question whether the things themselves are still the most appropriate in modern times. For some reason, that question has been perceived as not done. And this has the consequence that we are wasting a lot of time …. doing the wrong things even better!

But we should ask that question! We should escape from that vicious circle. And at the end of the day we even should resist  the family ties and social-cultural constraints that are strong and strict in the rural areas we love. Our main challenge might be, in order to save the future of our region, our culture and even our identity, to escape from the track that we know and in which we are feeling comfortable. The customary and traditional approaches that we love should be recognized as the chains that are keeping us from attacking today’s problems. And breaking those chains might feel as leaving the world we love behind. The view of Sjon Stellinga can be seen as an attempt to escape from this rut from the point of view of a local politician.

Because one thing is for sure: the way we met our needs in history, cannot always be the way to meet our needs in the future. And if our own attitude, understandable and explainable as it is, stops us from finding that new way, then we should start working on that attitude. In order to find new solutions for new problems!

After a short overview and a more or less analytical description of today’s social and political mechanisms in the municipality of Achtkarspelen, the contribution ends with some light at the end of the tunnel. Fortunately,  just in time!