Re: The Meaning of Holism LO1790

Barry Mallis (bmallis@quickmail.markem.com)
26 Jun 1995 11:22:07 -0400

Reply to: RE>>The Meaning of Holism LO1773

To David Markham, regarding the dog-eat-dog paradigm.

Dave:

I'm not sure if I meant to bust chops by sounding so...well, naive about
how much every person for himself exists in organizations.

Like you, I now have a charge to make more employees see real cause and
effect in our processes. That means taking a whole view of the process.
so much has been written on this subject; I'm loathe to repeat, but
perhaps to clarify our dialog I will mention it again.

More and more companies are learning that each employee has someone
upstream and someone downstream in all processes. OK, so I knew that
already, say most people. But the actual effect of one's work on others
has not been foremost in American minds. In this regard, the word effect
has the broadest range of meaning.

I'll tie into these developing thoughts (as I type) an intangible thread.
It is my belief that we humans have three centers: emotional, spiritual
and physical. At best, our biological life is a chance to maintain
harmony and balance between the centers. In balance, these centers
produce a kind of "vibration"--not in the traditional, physical
sense--which, like ripples from a pebble thrown into a still body of
water, move outward from the center, echo off other objects, and flow
back. (As it happens, there are physicists who speak of matter in cosmic
spaces doing much the same thing, a suggestion that appeared long after
these thoughts were developed thousands of years ago by humankind).

Balance in an individual working in an organization can manifest in
greater harmony, interconnectedness and team work. Team work has the
potential to build positive forces when facilitated appropriately. That's
not an easy task. In an organization where most are guarding their
personal turf, even teams can be superficial or incidental to deeper work.
After all, despite all the athletic teams after work, the Lion's Club and
Rotary, the PTA and Nature Conservancy meetings, we travel through life
almost alone, as Robert Frost said. But that's a short view for me, who
am an eternal optimist about people. My optimism is based upon a sense
that the veils which cover our perceptions can be pulled aside with the
result that the world is a lighter place where greater levels of existence
are possible.

OK, OK, I'm growing a little wacky here. I've gone from what seems to be
real world to the numinous. But isn't it aspiration toward the good which
ultimately drives humankind?

Thanks for the prompting, Dave. I look forward to your continued thoughts
(and those of others on the list).

--
Best regards,
Barry Mallis
bmallis@markem.com