Intro -- Carol L. Smith LO531

CAROL L SMITH (CLSMIT@ccmail.monsanto.com)
Fri, 24 Mar 95 17:55:00 cst

I'm Carol L. Smith, and I currently work for a Fortune 100 company. In
my current position I'm trying to influence organizational change --
to become an organization measured quantitatively, leveraging the
knowledge of the entire organization, and improving the way we work --
from the inside. My division hired me to be part of the team, rather
than consult with the team, to make these changes. An interesting way
to effect change, and it's beginning to work.

In addition, I'm leading a worldwide 40 person team to recommend how
to change the corporate operations of a large nonprofit organization.
This team conducts most of its business via email and will probably
never all meet in person. We're learning a lot about communication
methods and how to stay on track.

Unlike many of you, I'm fairly new to any career. I graduated from the
Sloan School at MIT 3 years ago, where I learned about organizational
behavior from Ed Schein, quality from lots of people including Shoji
Shiba, and the impact of technology in organizations from Wanda
Orlikowski (my Thesis Advisor). Before that I worked in marketing for
a large insurance company.

I've always been interested in how organizations work. Senge spoke in
one of my classes, and I've read the Sloan Management Review version
of the Fifth Discipline a number of times, but I'm just now reading
the real book. I hope to use the beer game in a class I'm facilitating
in a few weeks.

I'm interested mostly in learning the practical things -- how to
motivate people towards looking at the whole system, how to influence
a whole system when the reward structure discourages this, and what
tools work for people who don't do math and have clerical backgrounds.

I look forward to continuing my lurking, and I hope to contribute more
as I learn more.

Carol L. Smith
clsmit@ccmail.monsanto.com