Dr Karl Royle

426 matches 138 goals 63 assists 33 PL goal involvements v the ‘big six’ 5 major trophies Countless lives changed through his activism and campaigning in Manchester and beyond. Marcus Rashford embodied everything that a Manchester United player should be. 🙌

@PlashingVole @FobTurnip Yes, overseas students is also a non sustainable business model for a regional university. How does that align with values and vision? Need to think about what it means to be a university in that space.

@karlroyle @FobTurnip That all happened here. We’re on our fourth VC in six years too. I didn’t even meet one of them. Latest one is spending his time firing swathes of people and setting up subsidiary companies to employ any new staff. Still claiming thousands of overseas students are on their way.

My university: abolishes inter-campus buses as ‘discriminatory’ because not all students use it; subsidises pollution and congestion by not charging for car parking.

@PlashingVole @FobTurnip Couple that with a disenfranchised workforce coping with underfunding and paired back services and add a smattering of therapeutic governance…

@karlroyle @FobTurnip We’re on our fourth in four years.

@PlashingVole @FobTurnip Yes, it does seem to be a pattern … build buildings as vanity projects, leverage your reserves and cross your fingers that student numbers keep going up to service the debt and don’t look too closely at risks on the horizon ( Brexit, pandemic, inflation) .

@PlashingVole @FobTurnip Previous finance guy says it all really…

@FobTurnip That was the previous finance guy’s word. Talk about weaponising social justice narratives. The truth was that they wanted to save some money.

I was an early adopter of twitter but now I’m in the departure lounge . Bluesky is a bit like twitter was and it’s a chance to start again … a bit like cleaning out a cupboard and rationalising what you want to keep.

Too white? Too black? Too woke? Politics by labelling is a disease of our times | Kenan Malik theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

@allenholub @Gr8fulAlien If the dancer stops dancing, the show is over, no inertia will carry us forward… Latour 2005 - reassembling the social …

@Gr8fulAlien Dance!

This is a scrum 👇. Do we really want to build software like this? Odd choice of metaphor.

@allenholub @Slav636 The ball is actually passed backwards but team progresses forwards .. does that help .. probably not.

@Slav636 Wouldn't you just end up running off the end of the field entirely 😄

@allenholub I always thought it was an odd analogy- if anyone had ever played Rugby they would know why. Better Barcelona’s tiki taka football (soccer) era

@PlashingVole Yes , I was there :-)

@karlroyle We had that in 2022. VC read a script then switched off the stream. No questions or comments permitted.

Some of my colleagues were informed of redundancy selection yesterday. Invited to consultation meetings with less than 24 hours working notice. While attending graduations and preparing for student inductions. What a classy start to the year.

@allenholub @ThadOfSphere Well said @allenholub

My "Home" thread is full of misogynistic, racist garbage and Russian pro-Trump propaganda, often retweeted by Musk, and an unacceptable flood of advertisements for sleazy enterprises. The percentage of posts in this category is _way_ higher than it used to be. Frankly, I don't think removing posts that cause active harm or are deliberate misinformation is "censorship." That framing comes from the far-right, who have redefined "free speech" as misogynistic and racist misinformation and lies. Active harm (shouting fire in a crowded theater) has never been "censorship." I also hate supporting Musk and all the reprehensible shit he stands for. The only thing that keeps me here is there's no truly viable platform yet. I'm hoping that the Brazilian situation will help BlueSky.

@allenholub I like this one … perhaps also a little first law of cybernetics too… the only way to deal with variety is variety… Ashby (1956) :-)

Gall's Law is an essential observation about systems (not just software systems, but organizational ones as well, and it applies recursively). It states: “A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.” Software systems need to start small and simple and then evolve over time through frequent releases for feedback and adjustments based on that feedback. Bug-up-front planning—everything from backlogs and over-specified "stores"—is in the way of that. Similarly, the best organizational systems start small (e.g., as a startup) and evolve consciously as the organization grows. (Please pay attention to the word "consciously." Random growth never works—in organizations or in software products.) When it comes to "transitioning to" or "adopting" Agile, we're firmly in the territory of Gall's Law as well. First, the existing organizational system almost always falls into the "never works and cannot be made to work" category, so you end up in "start over" territory. Doing that all at once, by bringing in DeLoitte or an army of Scrum trainers, also "never works". Start simple with a top-level readjustment of thinking about how the organization should work—a C-Level strategy. Then, begin small and *consciously* and incrementally change things until that new philosophy is realized.

@allenholub @ionis_ You seem to be rather certain of the applicability of laws. ;-)

@ionis_ Well, with a big push from upper management, there's no need for an SM to push outward :-). That's the only way it can really work, IMO. Otherwise, Larman's Law pulls the org back to the old way of doing things.

So, central to the entire viability of Scrum is the notion that the SM coaches *outward* to the rest of the organization. That way, an Agile (we hope) team can infuse what it does to the whole organization and effect org-level changes. I HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS HAPPEN! The SM is *never*, in my experience, empowered to do anything except coach the team, and sometimes, not even that. Any attempts to change the org are effectively treated as whining. Not surprising, of course. Orgs that adopt Scrum company wide are both not Agile and also belive that they're done. "We spent millions moving to Scrum and you're now telling me that it's not enough? Maybe you don't undesrstand what Scrum is!" 🙄

@PlashingVole All seems a bit power and control

Bureaucracy is problematic, but basically equitable - everyone has to jump through the same hoops and data can be extracted to check that bias isn’t sneaking in. Without criteria other than ‘does this idea please Don Corleone?’ there are no checks and balances.

Sat in yesterday’s research and knowledge exchange event evaluating the management speeches like student presentations. Research-led? No. Timing: all massively overlong Clarity: absent, perhaps deliberately. Responses to specific questions: none. Openness: poor. Grade: 35%.

@allenholub Nice PhD at 59 :-)

@allenholub @TrentonDAdams They are actors within whatever system you are working in.., same with methods or processes… see actor network theory or speculative design

@TrentonDAdams So, where do things like prescribed meetings and roles go? Is that part of a methodology or a process?

What's the difference between a "process" and a "methodology"?

Had the best day at the city campus open day today! 🙌🏽 #opendaywlv #wlveducation #SENDISwlv @wlv_uni @ed_wlv @WLV_ECS

Wow! Our lecturer, Kerry's new novel out next year.