In LO2944 David Buffenbarger wrote, asking a question of Martin Raff:
>Martin - The question, did PAIN lead to your permanent desire to
>create or be an architect of your own future? It sounds like you
>started envisioning a better way to be (after the pain was alleviated)
>and continued on the path of systemic improvement. My limited
>perspective suggests this is not the usual pattern. I have mostly
>observed PAIN reduction followed by complacency - YES even
>in today's world.
Only Martin can answer this question as written, but I was internal
consultant from the inception of the change effort and I can give a
perspective you might find interesting... Martin never went for pain
reduction - in my experience he actively sought out the next painful piece
of data and sought to look at it as an opportunity to take things forward
- sometimes it drove me mad. I learned that this seeking out of the
issues (often without acknowledging what we had achieved - great if you
get your kicks out of congratulations NOT!) was rooted in his belief that
there was a better way and that we could and would make progress towards
it. It was a constant creative challenge - I read about creative tension
in Senge after 3 years of this and the first time I talked about it in our
Leadership Team found people really appreciated this description of what
was an ongoing experience for them. Also he was/is always ready to look at
this own contribution to the issues and learn from that - his reputation
from earlier days as an autocratic and the fear factor meant that in the
early days he got little feedback - once we started to take him seriously
about the new ways of doing business his response to, sometimes very
painful and personal feedback, was tremendous.
I'll leave Martin to tell more of the story in response to your other
questions.
-- Julie Beedon VISTA Associates - consulting for a better future julie@vistabee.win-uk.net