This is an expression that originated in USA TV to describe when the programme producers introduced a desperate gimmick to retain audience numbers. It fails and this is regarded as the moment the decline set in. It has it origins in an episode of the hit show Happy Days where the lead character The Fonz has to water ski over a shark in a tank. Critics pinpoint this as the moment the hit show went into terminal decline. The expression now has wider use to reflect any desperate gimmick to maintain a programme or initiative. Clearly it could be applied to public sector policy and where we are now in the government’s attempts to transformer the NHS, reform the civil service or privatise local government services.Blair McPherson author of Unlearning management published by Russell House www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
