Today is one of the most important days of the year – St Andrew’s Day. It is a day when everything about Scotland can be celebrated, yet oddly nothing much actually happens. Perhaps people haven’t got the memo.
Scotland is a weird place sometimes; a country full of contradiction and strongly placed pride, “we” love the countryside yet most people rarely leave the urban centres. “We” crave independence and yet there is a strong urge to rejoin the EU and “we” say we’re proud Scots but on days like today and Burn’s Night, few people get involved.
Maybe part of the issue is communications. Actually, it’s probably more of an issue with a poorly defined sense of national identity but I want to write about communication today so this is a way to clumsily shoehorn in a link to that!
It must surely be a vital thing for us to properly communicate both inwardly and outwardly what it means to be Scottish because it is far more than just a geographic location. I’m nervous about writing these next ten words: we need to look to America for a good example.
America seems to have national pride nailed and, although personally I find it all a little bit strange, there is no denying that “being American” is a thing we can ll produce a long list of characteristics of “being American” but can we do the same (beyond the twee stereotypes) of “being Scottish”?
I think what America has achieved in the near constant torrent of narrative about what being American means but in Scotland it’s largely a game of Chinese whispers. And that, rather circuitously, brings me on to communication in prisons.
Call me naive and perfectionist but I would have thought that an organisation like a prison would be on top of systems and SOPs, and indeed management may be, but the foot soldiers, those underpaid, underqualified, underable guards, seem to be blissfully in the dark. They have, however, developed and amazing, creative ability to invent rules and processes.
If I ask three separate guards the same question, you can safely bet your house that I’ll get three different answers and it is so very frustrating. I want to comply with the rules but when it’s impossible to find out what they actually are it is very difficult and the speed at which some things change is nuts.
Why can’t they print out new policies and put them up on noticeboards? Why can’t they give us access to appropriately redacted Standard Operating Procedures? Maybe the answer is because they want us to do as we’re told and be meek little lambs but my experience of that is they guards issue incorrect and often unlawful instructions.
It really is terrible and truly not a way to transform lives and unlock potential.
Anyway, now I’m off to celebrate St Andrew’s day but I suspect I’ll be the only one!
NaN.