Imagine mentioning some political, businessrelated, or university-related thing that you think could use some improvement. How familiar does the following reaction sound to you?
Oh, really? Interesting, you really see a problem there? No, I’d never seen it that way before. So far, it’s always worked just fine as it is. But now that you mention it, I can understand some of your concerns. Maybe we should sit down sometime and talk about what we might be able to do. It’s often so much easier to take a collegial and unbureaucratic approach…
A bit later:
Well, you are right—we really could think about what we might do about this. (…) And yes, that’s an interesting solution you’re suggesting. It really could effect some improvement; I’m totally with you, here. But you know, it really is a bit direct; after all, we wouldn’t want to alienate anyone, would we? We’ll need to go about things carefully so that we actually have a chance. How about you formulate it a bit more softly?
…and on and on…:
You really want to put it into practice that fast? We definitely don’t want to blindside anyone, now. (…) You’re right, of course, such things really should go without saying. But we need to take it nice and slow and discuss this solution with everyone first. And if things look good, then we’ll implement it step by step. (…) I don’t understand your doubts right now; I mean, in two years, we’ll be there. One really shouldn’t rush things like this.
…and the kicker:
Besides, does it actually need to be so comprehensive? What do you say we think up a successive transition? So we can just continue on as usual for now, and then we change things bit by bit. What do you say? It’ll be a really easy way for us to get this problem solved.
You’ve been reading: the answer to the question of, “How do problems get solved in Austria?” Summed up nicely and concisely by the platitude: Jo eh, aber schau ma amoi. [Yeah, sure, but let’s see, now…]
A column of the student body of the mdw (hmdw)
