Interorganisational - Supply Chain Management

What’s the implication of a writer’s block for SCM? You’d be surprised, this article makes the comparison between neurological networks (or neural networks, if you please) and business networks. And I thought the article on Amish furniture supply chains (or was it a cluster in the end?) was the funniest I had seen in a long time…

Here’s an excerpt from the writer’s block:

‘”Writer’s block” is the common term used to describe certain failures of the neurological network of the human brain . . . Of special concern . . . are the problems of bringing creativity to fruition in the completion or presentation of original work to a wider audience. This can be a daunting experience because of the onset of nerves, anxiety, time pressures and the anticipation of criticism from the person’s peer group or wider audience.’

Hoping none of the researchers currently at Ipsera feel it right now… But apart from the implications of a writer’s block for business networks (noting that truth drugs won’t help) , interestingly, the article distinguishes between different types of writer’s blocks, one being not the loss of writing skills, but the loss of the spark of originality. My special favourite is Malcolm Cunningham’s reflection #3 for academics and managers:

‘It has been pointed out that some creative writers, when going through the effects of writer’s block, tend to produce dull repetitive output . . . However, there is clear evidence that healthy academics also turn up at conferences with papers that are equally dull and repetitions of former papers.’

Let’s hope we bloggers won’t suffer from such a block… (though we might be able to buy one from Calvin - and Hobbes)

Gyöngyi