>If that's the case ie we learn or are preconditioned towards analysis or
beliefs (doesn't matter which, although it's the former!) then: <
Please don't make this assumption. I wonder how and where you got
research data on this. I know many people that pose we are more
preconditioned to beliefs. And, it does matter which.
>1. Most of us who have been anywhere near a business school or a real
organization have a bent towards an analytical, situational, chameleonic
approach, because that's what gets taught, which is why vision-driven
organisations sound great in theory but are as rare as hens teeth in
practice.<
My parents recited 'to thine own self be true' so often to me that I just
cannot do the chameleonic approach. Have also attended two personal
mastery workshops which teach seeking "truth to self". I have been in
three "real" organizations and have not found the above "bent towards"
caving in on personal values until the past few years when downsizing
suggested not as many great paying jobs were out there to grab onto.
>2. The idea that "personal beliefs are fixed so I have to find an
organisation with congruent belief systems" doesn't really hold. You
might be one of the statistically very few executives whose beliefs side
outweighs his or her analysis side, in which case you could rightly say -
for me, personally, I can't change my beliefs. <
John, I would sincerely appreciate having the statistics you are
referencing. What is your source?
Correction: Please review LO2289. I annually review my beliefs and
values to see if/how they have changed or shifted. There was not a
place where the statement was made that they do not change. My beliefs
have changed, consciously and unconsciously. However, SINCE I
WRITE THEM DOWN, it is EASIER to see what they are and were.
I ask a related question. How many people write down a short or long
list of values and beliefs? Few that I know of. Without writing them
down, there is no commitment to them and it becomes "relatively
easy to change them". That way, no one, not even the individual
has to be accountable to themselves to stand up for what they
believe. The mind is a marvelous thing. It can fog up overnight
when there is no documentation on what it was thinking even
as late as yesterday.
>Most people can and do mutate their belief systems with surprising and
scary ease if they perceive a (analytically-derived) "benefit" of some
kind. Read "Built to Last" by Porras and Collins - ideological vision
driven organisations are terrible places to work for if you can't adapt or
suspend your personal belief system and subsume it into the organisation's
one - and/or if your belief system doesn't fit theirs. <
Mutate, suspend, and subsume have different meanings. Not meaning
to be picky (but actually being so), do you mean all three in the same
thought or is it actually only one of these three descriptors? Since
you did not mention any references, I am troubled by the "most
people" statement. Would appreciate the reference articles so I can
better understand how you have come to the point of saying at
least (most people) 51 per cent of the people do this.
I pose it slightly differently. If people are willing to mutate their
beliefs and values, they value money or safety or security (or
whatever the driving force is) higher than being true to themselves.
Since this is a Learning-Org list, I think it is necessary that
we surface the idealism of being true to oneself. I believe it is one
of the METANOIAC SHIFTS TO THE underlying currents of
Personal Mastery and Shared Vision.
I am not denying that many people "give-in" to the values and
beliefs of their organization. I pose that on this list we are not
discussing the "as is organization". We are sharing our perspectives
on the "should be" organization in order for maximum learning
to occur. Deeply shared vision requires deeply shared values
and beliefs.
>But ideological cult-organisations one could say are as close as
we have to an actual learning organisation made flesh, eh? <
Let's try a different mental model on this one about cults. Cults
demand tearing down of personal values and beliefs, suspending,
subsuming, actually destroying them. There have been at least
two articles written in the past couple of years comparing our
present organizations of fancy footwork to those of a cult. These
articles (one serious and the other poking fun) pertained to the
lack of risk-taking, candid, challenging, diverse atmospheres in
our corporations and posed analogies with cults. Since I do not
keep articles, maybe someone on this list knows about what I
speak and has a copy. I would be interested in a reference.
I believe we WILL find multiple, strongly held beliefs present in a
learning organization. However, there will be some common
threads of honesty, integrity, morality, value of the individual,
passionate focus on the customer and environment, etc., which
will allow for diverse values and beliefs aligning under the corporate
core values system.
Have a great day!!
-- Dave Buffenbarger Organizational Improvement Coach Dow Chemical Company dwbuff@aol.com (517) 638-7080