Will Sr. Managers Change? LO7295

GSCHERL (GSCHERL@fed.ism.ca)
Wed, 08 May 96 09:08:05 EST

Replying to LO7271 --

I agree with Joan Pomo who responded to Brock

>> How do we change the culture - not just of an organization - but of
>> a nation?

with

> We change just as one eats an elephant, one bite or one person at a
> time.

We can only see the change progress through one person at a time.
Just as we can lead a horse to water, we cannot make them drink, so to
we can educate a person about why they should change, we cannot change
the person directly. Hundreds may be educated, dozens may want to
change, and only one changes. Why?

I heard an interesting analogy last night. It was referring to
motivation, but it relates to any facet of learning, training and
changing behaviours.

People say motivation doesn't work. Why? Because the went to a
seminar three month ago, and after a week, they lost their motivation!
It's only a short-term fix.

People say deodorant doesn't work. Why? Because they used some three
months ago, and people are standing miles downwind from them now.
Deodorant doesn't work! It's only a short term fix.

This can be applied to so many things. Deodorant works if you use a
small amount each day. Motivation will work if you use a small amount
each day. The Learning Organization, once in place, works because of
the environment that allows people to learn a small amount each day.

As Joan wrote:

> leadership is actually easy to understand and easy to execute
> through specific actions backed up by specific reasons why they are
> correct and others are incorrect.

The challenge will remain how long after a person has become aware by
reading a book on leadership, or attending a workshop will they
continue to try and apply the new tools and new rules. We need to
give them constant ongoing exposure to the new rules, especially if
their environment, corporation, or even country is unsupportive of the
concepts and ideas.


Gary Scherling
Helping people help themselves
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/GScherling_GMS_TPN

-- 

GSCHERL@fed.ism.ca (GSCHERL)

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