Traditional Wisdom... LO8834

Keith Cowan (72212.51@CompuServe.COM)
02 Aug 96 13:54:41 EDT

Replying to LO8742 --

"Mary E. Apodaca" <mapodaca@carbon.cudenver.edu> asks
>...I've just received a request from an organization that considers
>itself an LO requesting a defense or rejection of the following statement:
>
>"It is traditional wisdom in the business world that a coporation is only
>as good as the people it employs."
>
>How would you react to this statement--in writing, that is?

People are one element but good people can work for an organization that
is failing and often do. People that "get downsized" by such failing
organizations are also good people.

I would suggest that whoever offered this statement needs to reassess
their sources of "traditional wisdom". It is these types of superficial
and misleading platitudes for which systems thinking offers an alternative
solution. Deming's teaching would also indicate that this is very
dangerous thinking. Finally, can anyone name an organization that is
having trouble because of its "bad people"...Keith

-- 

Keith Cowan <72212.51@CompuServe.COM>

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