As head of the WHO for a day, what is the first concrete action you would take?
I feel like it would be a cop out to say that my first concrete action would be to spend a lot of time working out what’s actually happening on the inside at different levels and how the teams are working together.
But maybe one idea would be to have some independent organisation evaluate some of the WHO’s recent & historical programs — e.g. How did they manage to eradicate smallpox? Why did their other eradication programs fail? and similarly for their other targeted efforts, their data collection, etc. — I think revisiting some of those would hopefully give a broader, outside perspective on what an organization like the WHO is good at and could do more or less of.
Editing Works in Progress, what one lesson has most improved the ideas you publish?
To me, the main one is figuring out a good article structure early on: what the author actually needs to explain first, how they’ll introduce and connect the different points, and so on, in a way that’s readable and logical, while also conveying their message effectively. I think people often struggle with that, and I would want to use their time more efficiently so they know what extra research to do (or what to cut down if it turns out it wasn’t necessary).
To me, the main one is figuring out a good article structure early on: what the author actually needs to explain first, how they’ll introduce and connect the different points, and so on, in a way that’s readable and logical, while also conveying their message effectively. I think people often struggle with that, and I would want to use their time more efficiently so they know what extra research to do (or what to cut down if it turns out it wasn’t necessary).
That’s really interesting, thanks! I don’t have a great idea of what editors for journals do, and it’s interesting to me that you’re involved so early in the writing journey vs receiving a mostly complete piece. Thanks for the answer!
Yeah, these are great!
As head of the WHO for a day, what is the first concrete action you would take?
I feel like it would be a cop out to say that my first concrete action would be to spend a lot of time working out what’s actually happening on the inside at different levels and how the teams are working together.
But maybe one idea would be to have some independent organisation evaluate some of the WHO’s recent & historical programs — e.g. How did they manage to eradicate smallpox? Why did their other eradication programs fail? and similarly for their other targeted efforts, their data collection, etc. — I think revisiting some of those would hopefully give a broader, outside perspective on what an organization like the WHO is good at and could do more or less of.
Editing Works in Progress, what one lesson has most improved the ideas you publish?
To me, the main one is figuring out a good article structure early on: what the author actually needs to explain first, how they’ll introduce and connect the different points, and so on, in a way that’s readable and logical, while also conveying their message effectively. I think people often struggle with that, and I would want to use their time more efficiently so they know what extra research to do (or what to cut down if it turns out it wasn’t necessary).
That’s really interesting, thanks! I don’t have a great idea of what editors for journals do, and it’s interesting to me that you’re involved so early in the writing journey vs receiving a mostly complete piece. Thanks for the answer!