by Arne Vestergaard and Marianne Smedegaard

We have for a number of years taught project managers how to manage people and processes. We have heard stories from many different organisations describing numerous ways to understand and execute projects. It seems that there exists not a single correct way to manage projects, but many possible ways. One thing, though, seems to be characteristic of most of the cases. Top management expects the project manager to have complete control over the project and to have answers to any question anyone might want to ask. In many cases it is also a requirement that the project manager ensures that members of the project group have clear goals and that the development of the project is on schedule.

In this paper we want to explore to what extent the effort to control and direct a project is useful, and to what extent a project can be restricted by tight control. Perhaps there are other concepts for project management that better fit with the complexity and variability that characterise projects in today’s world. Perhaps it is preferable to see projects as a living system rather than strategically and bureaucratically.

A change in perspective of this kind would mean that the project organisation must relinquish the idea of having control over the project all the time and, if they do achieve control, see it as a temporary state of affairs. Some degree of chaos then becomes a necessary (but not exclusive) condition for innovation and for handling complexity and change. In other words, the project manager must place the project on the edge of chaos. In this paper we will try to understand what this means in practice.

Read more here http://arne-vestergaard.dk/default.aspx?pageid=208

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The musical stages two moving and exciting stories in parallel plots. The audience looks behind the scenes of the presidential election in 2008 and follows the career of the present US president Barack Obama. The main character is presented less on a political level, but rather as an emotional person who fights for a new, more forgiving and peaceful world and a better future. At the same time, the viewer experiences the societal events from the point of view of a multi-cultural apartment-sharing community in Chicago. Caused by the prevailing tight political and economic situation, societal and social frictions and emotions arise. The people are given new hope by the new spirit of the age.

Author and composer Randall Hutchins works with the best Afro-American singers and actors of the German musical scene. He produces inter alia for “The very Best of Black Gospel”, “Musical the Gift” and he participated in “Starlight Express” as a musician. In “HOPE”, he combines an affectionately arranged mix regarding taste and aesthetics of different music styles in the field of Pop, Soul, Gospel, HipHop and Rock. The diversified mixture of catchy melodies electrifies the audience right from the beginning. Undoubtedly, the songs have what it takes to become hits.

For “HOPE”, 30 world-class artists, singers, dancers and actors perform on stage. They participate in the production with great enthusiasm and dedication. “The spirit of the show is carried by the spirit of the entire team”, praises the producer Roberto Emmanuele. Della Miles and Jimmie Wilson, known as the dream duo of the Michael Jackson musical “Sisterella”, as well as Dynelle Rhodes, the original lead singer of the Weather Girls, join the cast as soloists. They are supported by well-known performers who are leads in “Cats”, “The Lion King” and “We will rock you”. The rehearsals took place inter alia at mediaArt FORUM in Bad Soden.

The production is realized in German and English, so that the story line can be followed by everyone.

On percussion: the audience sitting on specially developed musical chairsIn the course of the musical, the audience develops to co-musicians. For they sit on a musical instrument with an astoundingly high sound quality. Approximately 1200 of the 2000 available seats in the domed hall of the venue Jahrhunderthalle will be equipped with design chairs which house the smallest set of drums worldwide. The special construction of this musical furniture allows for a distinctive bass and snare sound. The people play while sitting, drumming with their hands on the percussion surface. Inspired by this characteristic sound, Roberto Emmanuele and his partner Patrick Strese call the innovation “BAFF musical furniture”. The other musical spectators do not sit quietly on their chairs either. They are handed out rattles, so that the sound of “HOPE” will fill the entire hall. The producers want all people to have access to music as a strong medium.

As early as in September, the musical company enthused about 45,000 viewers with a first musical foretaste during a successful performance at Commerzbank Arena next to stars like Bob Geldorf and Samy Deluxe. After only a short period of time, the entire stadium swung and clapped along to songs never heard before like “Rock the Vote”. Experts of the German music scene praised the high level of the American Pop music and certified the sound to have “Earth Wind and Fire quality”. The most important concert organizer worldwide, Fritz Rau, says: “Respect and two thumbs up for this musical”. According to the slogan “Yes we can”, the musical is to tour in Germany after having premiered in Frankfurt.

Tickets for the premiere can be purchased via the ticket seller EVENTIM within the price scope of 40 to 149 Euros in several seat categories. Following the premiere, a VIP premiere party will take place, at which special culinary refreshments will be served to the guests and the musical performers can be experienced up close in an “unplugged performance”. The VIP tickets can be bought for 99 Euros directly from the HOPE production.

Important note from the HOPE production team:
The “HOPE musical production” does not pursue any political interests with their production. Being artists, we merely stage a piece of attitude to life of the “historic year 2008″ with topics still prevailing today as well as good entertainment and music!

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Catherine Hamlin came to Ethiopia from Australia in 1959 to work as an
obstetrician and gynaecologist at a hospital in Addis Ababa. With her husband
Reginald she pioneered the surgical treatment of obstetric fistula. The Hamlins built
their own hospital in Addis, where women are treated free of charge. The facilities
include reception hostels for the women, who come from all over the country, and a
rehabilitation centre for the badly injured. They have also established regional
centres to make the treatment more widely accessible and a midwifery school to
help prevent obstetric fistula occurring in the first place.
Catherine Hamlin was born in Sydney in 1924. In 1959, she left Australia together with
her husband Reginald in response to an advertisement to work as
obstetrician/gynaecologist at a hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The couple was
horrified by the prevalence of obstetric fistula, a condition arising from prolonged
obstructed labour that leaves the affected woman incontinent of urine, with 20% suffering
bowel incontinence as well. Permanently leaking bodily fluids, they often become social
outcasts, without hope, and live in the most miserable conditions. Obstetric fistula,
formerly common throughout the world, is now almost non-existent in industrialized
countries, thanks to better obstetric care, but is still prevalent in developing countries.

Pioneering fistula treatment
At the time the Hamlins started their work, there was little treatment available for the
condition anywhere in the world, but the Hamlins developed surgical techniques, began
to operate on their patients and eventually achieved a 93% success rate. Soon, women
started arriving at the hospital from all over the country hoping for the operation. Small
hostels were built on the hospital’s grounds to accommodate them as they awaited their
turn. All treatment was – and still is – free of charge.

Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital
Recognising that they needed their own hospital, the Hamlins went fundraising abroad.
Eventually, in 1974, Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital was opened. Since then, it has become
a global centre of expertise in fistula repair and also trains surgeons. In addition to the
main hospital in the capital, there are now, in 2009, five regional hospital centres in other
Ethiopian cities to make the treatment more widely accessible. Their doctors treat 2,750
women per year – about 29% of new fistulas in Ethiopia – and have treated over 32,000
women in total. They have also built Desta Mender – ‘Village of Joy’ – a rehabilitation
centre for women so badly injured that they need long-term care.

Hamlin also focuses on the important area of fistula prevention with the establishment of
the Hamlin Midwifery College in Addis Ababa. The midwives will be placed in rural
health clinics around the country in order to prevent obstetric fistula in the first place, to
raise the quality of care in childbirth generally and to lower the high maternal death rate.
The hospital and associated activities have about 400 staff and cost more than EUR 1
million per year to run. Catherine Hamlin, while still also operating on patients, spends a
lot of time travelling the world to raise awareness about the condition and its disastrous
effects on the lives of its victims, and to fundraise for her clinics and midwifery school.
Funds come from eight international partner organisations (that in Sweden has 70,000
members) and major charities. The Australian Government is also a key supporter.

Honours and books
Hamlin has been awarded many medical honorary fellowships, and a number of civil
honours, including Companion of the Order of Australia (1995) and the Rotary Award for
Understanding and Peace (1998). In Australia, her book The Hospital by the River
became a best-seller.

Quote
Catherine Hamlin chose to quote the British fistula surgeon, Professor Chassar Moir of
Oxford, who summed up the ethos of fistula treatment:
“Nothing can equal the gratitude of the woman, who wearied by constant pain and
desperate with the realization that her very presence is an offence to others, finds
suddenly that life has been given anew and that she has once again become a citizen of
the world.”

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