Will Sr. Managers Change? LO6890

Virginia I. Shafer (vshafer@AZStarNet.com)
Mon, 22 Apr 1996 09:54:28 -0700 (MST)

Replying to LO6820 --

Ray LaManna asks:

>Do you really think that senior managers in most organizations will really
>change as a result of their encounter with LO theory? I think not. I'm
>afraid that they will skim the work of Senge, Marsick and others and do
>with LO what so many did with reengineering- read half the book and don't
>follow through with sincere reflection on the consequences of their
>actions.

Some will, probably most won't. The latter grew up in their areas of
expertise being rewarded for different behaviors. They won't try on new
behaviors unless they're a) real gutsy or b) vested for retirement. In
the last organization I belonged to, I predicted it would take three
generations of senior "managers" to move out of the organization before
new behaviors could take hold. (A generation was roughly three years, so
about nine years in transition.) I made my prediction in 1992, so the
results are yet to be seen.

My point is, it doesn't concern me so much that today's senior managers
change as much as I want to see the environment favorable for future
senior managers to be practicing the disciplines.

Trusting the Process,

-- 

Ginger Shafer The Leadership Dimension "Bringing Leadership to Life" vshafer@azstarnet.com

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>