Organisation Creative Response LO8400

Michael Erickson (sysengr@atc.boeing.com)
Tue, 9 Jul 1996 07:19:33 -0700 (PDT)

Replying to LO8266 --

On Wed, 3 Jul 1996 hweesing@singnet.com.sg wrote:
> Change is the norm of today's world, be it technical, social, political.
> And the speed of change is getting faster. The strategic issue for any
> organisation is to be able to cope with and response to change.
>
> By purely reactive and responding is insufficient. Organisation must put
> in place some mechanism, for their individual, group and organisation as
> whole, to be proactive to the changing environment, and response
> innovatively.
>
> I intend to propose to my organisation some mechanism to promote and
> cultivate 1) the sensitivity and capturing of the changing environment 2)
> to response creatively.
>
> I would like to hear from those of you who would share your experience or
> idea in implementing such change(s) and its implementation problems.

> Lim HweeSing, Singapore

Hello Lim

Just a few comments...

Yes, change is keeping us all at attention, and yes, some way is needed to
anticipate it and meet it head on, however, I would suggest that you be
carefull about How that mechanism is created and maintained. It could in
itself become another beurocratic command and control device that will
hinder the very activities it was meant to un-hinder.

Traditional management technique (command and control) would wish to put
such a thing into place, and in fact have put such things in place in the
guise of various kinds of think-tanks and committees, to little avail.

We are experimenting with "learning labs", that include participants from
all levels of our organization, in a free form, dialogue oriented meeting
that we hope will give us material to build system models from, and then
hopefully show us where to apply pressure for change that will be
effective and appropriate. This of course aimed at building an
organization that is willing to change, and flexible enough to take
advantage of changes in the world as those changes come about-and not
focused on the changes in the world per se. I'm coming to believe that
anticipating where the change is going is less important than changing
myself so I can cope with change when (not if) it occurs.

I hope this helps
later....
Michael Erickson
sysengr@atc.boeing.com

-- 

Michael Erickson <sysengr@atc.boeing.com>

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