I have no personal reason to defend Caroline Shahbaz, outgoing change management consultant for the City of Port Phillip. I’m prepared to believe the report that she’s much too fascinated by new-agey woo (like thousands of other people both in and out of management circles), and vastly overpaid (like thousands of other management consultants the world over.)
But. I just think the language employed by this article is… very interesting. See what you think.
She's a blogger, she's a grinner, she's a mother, she's a sinner. She plays her music in the sun.
Comments (11)
Caroline Shahbaz, Management Consultant (Astrology Student 2000-01)
I’ve blockquoted that for you FX. For a moment I thought it was you who had studies with Stella Starwoman.:-)
Yes, that’s what I meant when I wrote too fascinated by new-agey woo. Whether that would make someone a worse management consultant is certainly open to debate – on many fronts.
I’m just appalled that a government (local or otherwise) hires a consultant with belief-based qualifications for professional development. I’d be equally appalled if they’d chosen a priest, rabbi, imam or shamen.
I’m not surprised a lot of the staff had problems with it.
That said the article in question could have taken a more rational approach than the good old witch hunt.
I’m sure when I read it yesterday there was “witch” in the title?
Yeah me and Stella Star woman – thats a whole nother story – we was off tha planet man, back then I had stars in my eyes.
Ms Shahbaz has got a history – check out SENATE Official Hansard
No. 16, 2003 TUESDAY, 2 DECEMBER 2003
It is entirely possible that a person with belief in Astrology may well be able to help with organisational change. As it is possible that a person who believes in the Trinity or transubstantiation or Xenu or homeopathy might also be capable. However to assert that one applies that belief to ones work is to tap on my trustworthyness meter up around the red zone on the right.
That’s hysterically funny. All of it. Haven’t laughed so hard for ages.
A lesbian in a sexual relationship with a gay man? Touche.
I’ll have to get her address and recommend her to the management of our competition 😉
Bingo FX, you have found some actual information (not related to woo) that might have a bearing on the problems Port Phillip has experienced with her. It might have been good if the journalist had done it, instead of going for all that witchy-poo fluff.
Fark! These change management consultants earn so much! Waaaaaaah… I want to be one too!
Helen, she herself trades on exactly this kind of essentialisation. She promotes the witch stuff from her own direct comments. She “jokingly” refers to herself as a white witch and says “You know, I can walk into a room and pick up what the nuance is,” I would call it, if you will, strategic essentialism. Mind, its not quite what Spivak had in mind when she raised it as a means by which indigenous peoples can reclaim fragmented identites – but, by trading on the alignment of woman with witchery, and intuition and shit, she earns a lot of money by the looks of it. Strategic to me.
Speaking of ‘interesting language’, try this, from the subject’s jottings on ‘meeting Buddha on the road’, (a term itself lifted from the writings of enlightened Zen masters):
‘The warm air licked my body encasing it in wetness as I left the cool interior of the bus’…… and ‘My crown chakra buzzed and my spirit spiraled upwards.’ and ‘I stepped into the ultra modern steel tube that whooshed me back through the surreal underground landscape of tunnels, metal, darkness, and electricity to the Hyatt. I arrived replete and completely nourished.’
Ah, the 5 star bliss of the spiritual tourist.
I didn’t even know I had a crown chakra. Shit, eh. This is why I am never going to be a Highly Paid Consultant™.