. . . the most memorable experience was Hammer's response when
someone asked him what one should do with the people whose jobs were
eliminated - and he said "nuke 'em".
Not sure if I want to spend the time reading that book. Another
related comment that keeps echoing in my head is Meg Wheatley's
response to the reengineering craze as discussed in Industry Weekly.
She said rather than reengineer, we need to de-engineer. She called
the reengineering efforts the supernova (last hurrah) of the old
management way of thinking.
I would like to hear from others what you think she means by that. What
I understand her to say is reengineering is just a continuation of the
old way of organizing companies through rigid, imposed structures that
limit and contain the human potential - it's just that reengineering
reduces the amount of that same old structure.
Meg's approach to the design of the organization, as I understand it,
would be to completely throw out the rigid structures, give people
local autonomy to think, create, and act, and provide overall
organization identity and coherence through clear missions, visions,
and principles (fractals).
TFYY93A@prodigy.com (MR GEOFFREY F FOUNTAIN)
-------- Original message follows --------
> Date: Saturday, 14-Jan-95 03:57 PM
>
> From: Mark Tabladillo \ Internet: (thd601@isye.gatech.edu)
> To: Geof Fountain \ PRODIGY: (TFYY93A)
>
> Subject: Re: Flapping your wings...
>
> I've enjoyed the butterfly metaphor for organizational change. This
is
> especially appropriate for large organizations where management needs
> time to build trust with the work force. I suspect this need to
build
> trust is the main reason why many TQM / CQI efforts take so long to
> produce fruit.
>
> The butterfly metaphor plays an important role (along with many other
> models) in explaining what to expect from organizational change.
> Currently, many people are excited about reengineering, and rightly
so
> because it plays an important role in learning organizations. I just
> finished the Hammer and Champy book this last month, and was
impressed by
> their consistent focus on process.
>
> Yet, the butterfly metaphor balances the expectations of rapid and
> immediate change; depending on what the organization is learning, it
make
> be quick, or may require the slow adoption by a broad-based sector
of the
> work force. Thanks to whoever first posted the butterfly.