Walter and all:
I have perception changing often. I think it's the judge inside of
me. One recent one:
At one of my clients', the manager of maintenance approached me to
discuss his ongoing challenges with our continuous improvement and
employee participation efforts. He asked me to help him know how to
get the members of his organization to stop lining up outside his
door after every job to ask him what to do next. He wanted to know
how to help the people he supervises to become more self-managing.
I asked him to think about what has caused the current behavior and
then he would have a better idea of what to change. I watched his
expression and could really see the wheels in his mind turning. My
wheels were turning, too. (Oh no, I thought, he's going to tell me
it's the company, it's the President, it's the former maintenance
manager, it's the people who report to me; they don't want to be
responsible and accountable. I'm sure every reader can hear my
perception tape running!!!)
When he had been thoughtful for several minutes, he smiled and
stated "the cause of the problem is I trained them that way. What I
need to change is me, not them."
I am reminded again that I need to rise above the boundaries of my
perceptions and prior experiences as I listen and learn.
Susan Heathfield
Heathfield Consulting Associates
--Susan Heathfield <s.heathfield@tsc.techsmith.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>