At 12:37 AM 8/6/96 +0000, Robert Bacal wrote:
>Focusing only on the system has its own problems. Let us not forget that
>individual PEOPLE do the work...the system doesn't do the work, but acts
>to structure, coordinate, etc. The system isn't accountable, people are
>accountable. I think a focus on one or the other is a fast track to a
>mess.
I think there are instances where the accountability for dysfunctional
systems is so broadly dispersed that it would be impossible to call anyone
to account.
For example, one of the systems in which we operate as managers is "the
way our society selects, promotes, and develops its organizational
leaders". I believe that this system is seriously flawed. The
organizations which develop strong and effective leadership are those that
reject the usual path: they think about what traits, knowledge, skills,
values, and attitudes are required, and develop a rational and intelligent
approach to building and sustaining effective management teams.
Those organizations that blindly follow the main stream tendencies tend to
develop, select, and promote leaders with limited vision, inadequate
skills, and limited ability to respond to changes in their business and in
society.
Who is accountable for this defective traditional system of management
development?
The system has been created more by accident than by plan. It is the
product of many decades of tradition, aided and abetted by hundreds of
thousands of managers.
Those who rise to positions of leadership within those organizations or
industries do so by meeting the requirements of their flawed system. When
circumstances change, revealing the inadequacies of the traditional
approaches, and threatening total failure unless the leadership makes a
drastic change in diection, is it fair to blame those leaders for not
fighting the system which fostered them? Is that not like blaming the fish
for causing their own death by living in a polluted river?
I wonder if it is of any value to determine accountability in these cases?
I guess that's the main question that concerns me at this point in the
conversation.
Perhaps we should focus on who has the responsibility to do something to
break the perpetuating cycle . Perhaps it lies with those leaders in our
society who have been fortunate enough to break away from the traditional
way of thinking, and have acquired a new wisdom.
Brock Vodden
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H. Brock Vodden
Vodden Consulting
"Where People and Systems Meet"
Ontario, Canada
brock.vodden@odyssey.on.ca
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--Brock Vodden <brock.vodden@odyssey.on.ca>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>