[Subject line changed by your host.
...was "Noble Purposes"...]
Sam Jelinek wrote:
>Note, too, that as we "streamline," downsize, "rightsize," etc., we are
removing what used to be called "organizational slack." Because there's
less slack, there's less buffer to recover in, fewer organizational
resources to respond to crisis, especially repeated crisis. People simply
get tired, but much of the contemporary business writing seems to envision
people working at a constant fever pitch of intensity, engagement and push
- as if we were all machines that could endlessly perform. Instead, crisis
mode and high intensity operations are more like running a marathon - tens
of thousands of people of all ages have done it, some for year after year.
But not every day, and not without rest and recovery time. Athletes train
with rest days built in. So how can we adapt our organizations to both
high performance and humane recognition of people's needs?
*** end of quote ***
I agree with Sam that the reduction of slack in organizations has
dramatically reduced, if not totally eliminated, the time for reflection.
Moreover, this seems to negatively affect the process of learning. How
can we learn if we cannot reflect on what we have done?
In my experience, learning (my own and that which I hope occurs in my
classroom) is often disconfirmational. When mental models are called into
question - when all of one's assumptions are turned upside down - we
experience, at least initially, profound discomfort. This is a critical
point; because it has been threatening, it is easy to discount, to ignore
or to attack. Instead, if learning is to occur, this period of
disorientation needs to be accompanied by an assimilation of what we have
just experienced, followed by a reconfiguration of mental maps to
accomodate new perspectives and insights.
I often wonder if this is why it currently seems so difficult to "bring
back home" what goes on in training or educational experiences. Having
been thrown back into the fire, survival is the only reasonable mode to
adopt.
So here is a question - how should/do organizations address the tension
created by the need for maximum work efficiency and productivity with the
need to allow learning to "sink in?" And how do we recognize this
learning once it has occured?
-- "Forbes, Ted" <ForbesT@darden.gbus.virginia.edu>