Great article. Found myself nodding agreement all the way through. Working as a trades union officer I've seen this first hand; the middle-aged white male management team hiring a DO (not a senior one, couldn't bring themselves to do that) and being comically taken aback to discover their new DO was very good at the job, knew just what needed doing and was not shy of getting on with it. They didn't quite come out with the words "But we made the appointment so we could pat each other on the back and feel smug, not to get the job done," but one or two of them went as far as admitting they hadn't realised there was an actual job to be done.