Anthony Bernard: 'Disconnection between cause and effect'

In the drinking water crisis in Brixham, people were desperate to interview the CEO of SW Water but she was probably not the person who last checked the faulty valve that caused the problem.

Sharing this with a friend, I was told that anything west of Swindon in his church is not getting proper support because senior people concentrate on London! However, there has been no RC bishop of Plymouth for nearly two years, so maybe all denominations suffer the same problem! But churches, mosques and others do continue under local leadership with their different mixtures of spirituality, companionship and support, without worrying about higher level human politics. Everyone in these groups works together for the benefit of the whole, in a spirit of enterprise and mutual trust!

Disconnect comes from a failure of mutual trust running through large organisations such as SW Water, the post office, the DWP, or many others. Motivation and pride to provide clean water, reliable mail, sensible benefit programmes, or other supplies and services is frustrated by separation into departments and profit centres, with targets to be met and regulations imposed.

Money is important, cost control matters, but there are more factors in life than being cheap. Do you remember the cartoon of astronauts in a spaceship with the caption "I suppose they went out to tender, and this was the lowest bid!". Regulations try to keep up, but are usually one serious incident behind what is needed, and the worst incidents occur when rules are broken anyway.

Money is the root of all evil, as in the chorus of an old song! Money is the lubricant which keeps people going and businesses afloat, but money has become the curse of our modern society where profits are more important than people. Making a profit has become more important than getting the job done right! Splitting tasks into smaller jobs that can be passed to independent companies lessens the totals in the budgeting columns, but disconnects the people doing the job from their overall purpose.

Well motivated staff need a clear sense of purpose, whether it is to provide clean water to the locality or to support the charity whose name is over the shop! As with sports supporters, we all like to feel we belong and enjoy a sense of purpose. Sometimes the purpose is to get rested on holiday ready for the next push at work, even snoozing in a deck chair can have an objective! Many are now busy promoting political parties, or rubbishing opposing parties.

Our complex society is very structured and organised, but worrying about chains of command and improving efficiency to minimise costs loses the essential human quality of team work.

As we all prepare for the election, we should be concerned with how it may work out on 5th July and beyond. The economy is not just the sum total of everyone's work resulting in prices in the shops, it depends on how we work together.

Water is only one example, it is not just a matter of cheap consumer bills or major funding investments. Success depends on everyone being motivated, from the least menial person checking that valves are working correctly through to executives and politicians who may be called to resign if things go wrong!