Rick's message on Life in Organizations struck just about every nerve in
my body. I'm confident that many of us are often repulsed by the bizarre
and often destructive behavior found in many companies.
On Thursday I wrote three different responses to Rick's message. I didn't
send any of them. They represented, more or less, my emotions, and thus I
was afraid they would be either illogical or unproductive.
Thursday I left for a short camping vacation with my family. While
enjoying the beautiful rocky mountains, I had time to reflect on Rick's
message and to think more rationally about it.
I'm still worked up about it, so I'll restrict myself to a couple of
observations..
First, most organizations are dysfunctional. However, this seems more
obvious to white collar workers than blue collar workers. In June I went
camping with some good friends. Two were white collar workers, and two
were blue collar workers. The two of us who were white collar workers were
cracking jokes about organizations, and how dysfunctional they were.
Finally, one of the blue collar guys said, "hey, I can't believe your
talking like this. My boss owns the company, and when he tells me to do
something, I do it. I don't question it. I don't laugh at it. It's his
company, and I'm paid to do what he tells me."
As far as this guy was concerned, dysfunctional or not, he had no business
influencing, much less interfering, with the decisions his boss made. (Now
I know why I'm not a blue collar worker. . .I'd be fired my first day at
work.)
I was interested to note that both the blue collar guys were associated
with a Labor Union. There was more loyalty to the union than there was to
the employer. . .and, in their world, the union would solve all their
problems. . .
I'm afraid what we're witnessing is the emergence of what I call
"intellectual" sweat labor. . .similar to the sweat labor found in the
early part of this century. . .except the work is done in the mind, not on
the assembly line or in the meat packing plants. . .
White collar workers, on the other hand, get more aggravated and annoyed
by the wierdness found in the workplace. Part of the reason, in my
opinion, is that white collar workers generally are paid to think about
abstract concepts/ideas. This helps them identify the corporate
strangeness that they find annoying.
Second, if we are to make a positive change, we cannot tell the world what
is wrong with organizations. . .negative vision bears little fruit.
Instead we need to focus on describing the ideal organization, and why
such an organization would be profitable. This is what Senge did with the
5th Discipline, and what, I think, Art Kliener did with The Age of
Heretics, and what, I think, Mike McMaster did with his book The
Intelligence Advantage. (Sorry, if there are other authors on this list,
and I did not quote or mention your book it is probably because I don't
know about. Send me an E-Mail if you've written a book, give me the title
of your book, and I'll get to reading it.)
I think it would be a good idea, if we, as a group, wrote a Corporate
Declaration of Independence, or some such document, that denounced the
current realities of corporate life, and which defined, in a very lucid
and inspiring way, what organizations should be like. This could then be
posted on Rick's homepage, and I'm sure many others, such as Gene
Bellinger's SUN Concepts, etc. Perhaps those who write books could quote
it, and those who teach at the graduate level in universities could
promote it, and thus, we could, in a way, start a low-level movement to
change the way companies function.
--Benjamin B. Compton ("Ben") | email: bcompton@novell.com Novell, GroupWare Support Quality Manager | fax: (801) 222-6991
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>