>I think change can happen when people begin to get a sense of their own
>inner strength and worth independent of their organizations, when people
>don't feel beholden to and dependent upon their places of employment.
>Sometimes this might mean that an individual decides that his organization
>no longer fits for him.
In her recently released book, "The Last Word On Power...Executive
Re-Invention For Leaders Who Must The Impossible Happen" (Doubleday),
Tracy Goss has a chapter titled "Dying Before Going Into Battle." The
reference is to the Japanese Samurai warrior's practice of accepting death
before battle. I think Brian's statement above is very powerful in that
the fear of losing one's job is a major obstacle to organizational
learning. Irrespective of what other people in an organization (e.g.,
senior executives, board members, etc) do or don't do, we all have the
power to confront "our" fears. To quote from the book, "Having acquired
the ability to die before going into battle, you now have the opportunity
to choose to play a different game - a game other than survival - with the
rest of your life."
The major premise behind "executive" re-invention is that leaders must
re-invent themselves "before" they will acquire the power they will need
to re-invent their organizations. Tracy also wrote a Nov/Dec 1993 article
for the Harvard Business Review titled "Re-Invention Rollercoaster" with
Richard Pascale and Anthony Athos.
-- Brian G. Mulconrey - http://www.well.com/user/bgm bgm@well.com (Brian G. Mulconrey)