Longer life or living death?

A neat summary of the predicament that we humans find ourselves in was provided yesterday by Karen Dunnell, chief of the Office of National Statistics (ONS):-
“Medicine hasn’t been good at preventing things happening to you, but it has been very good at stopping you dying” she commented in a launch of a new report on increased longevity.

No doubt she didn’t really intend it to come out that way, but the thought of living in a state where we are stripped of free will and relegated to a state of eternal longevity is scary and bizarre. The implication - longer life in a state of impaired health and ability –  isn’t great either.

Bearing in mind that by 2032 more than three million people are expected to live to at least 85 – more than double the 1.3m today, it’s obvious that even without preventative medicine we’re all lasting longer. Yet surely quality of life has got to be a greater concern than simply more years – and that being the case, as Ms Dunnell says, it has to be down to all of us individually to take responsibility for doing all we can to “prevent things happening to us.”

Pass me another broccoli and fish oil smoothie.

Good practice in managing age diversity

Attended an interesting and informative conference yesterday on Developing Good Practice in Managing Age Diversity in the HE Sector organized (very capably) by The Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice at Oxford Brookes University.  (See more at    http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/hr/cdprp/age/index.html )

As was expected the delegates largely comprised HR professionals from other universities keen to learn from the research findings being presented and to benefit from the opportunity to share ideas. As the day progressed it became evident from the content and level of discussion that in many ways higher education institutions lag behind the private sector in their approach to managing age diversity. Although the general climate was redolent with good intentions, much remains to be done.

On many occasions and in many environments in the past I have been struck by how organizations fail to capitalize on their own talents, thereby missing out on the opportunity to lead the field and make a mark. In this instance it led me to wonder why, when most Universities have management schools, their support structure makes so little use of them.

The majority aren’t undertaking specific research into age diversity but on a wider platform effective management is their business. So why aren’t academics more closely involved in theory application? Why don’t practitioners involve them? Why aren’t they themselves generally more interested in ensuring that their own organization represents management excellence? Why aren’t HE institutions leading the field in managing age diversity?

Cobbler’s shoes, I guess.

Though would you trust a hairdresser with a really bad haircut?