This comes from a long post from Ivan
> It is true that people consider organizations as "machanical" and
>"without feeling or consideration." Sometimes we say these things without
>really stopping and really thinking carefully about this. Is it true that
>organizations are "machanical" or is it some of the people in the
>organizations who lose their humanness? The way I see it, organizations
>are people. If it appears to be mechanical it is the majority of the
>people inside it that act mechanically. Of course, we all know that they
>act this way as a result of the system under which they exits. But
>systems are developed by people, enforced by them, and modified by them!
An observation: When organizations operate mechanically, as if that were
the proper way to get things done, you can be sure that people will feel
uncomfortable and unsure of themselves. There will likely be a climate of
fear as individuals worry about messing up. This discomfort, these
unsureness, this fear are all cues from our bodies that we are human
beings. These cues remind us that taking the mechanical approach is not
realistic, that it is self-limiting. There is something good about
discomfort in such situations. It lets us know we are not acknowledging
our common humanity.
When we do come to see ourselves working together as human beings,
discomfort melts away. People acknowledge their frailties and strengths,
and work together with a sense of mutual support and they get better and
better at what they do. We can also recognize that a sense of comfort
about an organization is also a cue from our bodies that we are taking
into account our common humanity and doing our best by each other. To
maintain this situation, however, we must never become rigid, we must keep
open, and keep learning, all with a sense of tolerance for each other. I
think we need to remember that "there are no successes or failures, only
learning experiences"--a comforting thought.
-- John Woods jwoods@execpc.com