Life in Organizations LO9558

Julie Beedon (julie@vistabee.win-uk.net)
Wed, 28 Aug 1996 10:52:22

Replying to LO9474 --


Bill raised the question....
>
>But I question what the system is if it isn't 'us', that is the people who
>are in the community in question?
>
>Here and elsewhere on the list we seem to be trying to 'lay blame' on
>something that makes organizations dysfunctional. And the, seemingly,
>convenient and non-threatening answer is 'the system.' To me the only
>discerning part of all communities are 'us' the people in them. Therefore,
>I reason that we are the cause of our organization's dysfunction.

which is *the* question...

I have been on the road again and barely keeping up with my mail so
this thread has only really had a scan. (using the party thing I
kept walking past and catching snatches but have not been able to
stop and really listen) then this question really caught my eye.
Without wishing to go to philosophical I would like to try
exploring this by

* starting with some reflections and inspirations
* developing some theories
* connecting them to practical actions which we can do about this

I do not have all of this but I though some people might like to
join in and help??

I would like to start by quoting John Steinbeck (from the Grapes
of Wrath) if you recall it please skip the qoute which I have
bounded with ***

****************

The owners of the land came onto the land, or more often a
spokesman for the owners came... Some of the owners were kind
because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were angry
because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because
they had long ago found out that one could not be an owner unless
one were cold. And all of them were caught in something larger
than themselves... if a bank or a finance company owned the land,
the owner man said, The Bank - or The Company - needs - wants -
insists - must have - as though the Bank or the Company were a
monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared
them........................snipping here of good stuff which
reinforces this last point .............................
We have to do it. We don't like to do it. But the monster's
sick. Something's happened to the monster...
Sure, cried the tenant men, but it's our land. We measured
it and broke it up. We were born on it, and we got killed on it,
died on it. Even if it's no good it's still ours...
We're sorry. It's not us It's the monster. The Bank isn't
like a man.
Yes, but the bank is only made of men.
No, you're wrong there - quite wrong there. The bank is
something else than men. It happens that every man in the bank
hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is
something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. men made
it, but they can't control it.

*************************************

The wisdom which emerges out of this story (and some I borrowed
from the Thoelogian Walter Wink) is that:

* you cannot reduce the individual to the system

- people can make a difference
- major system change can always be tracked to a single
person or small group
- system changes will not always produce good or
transformed people
- the abolition of slavery does not end racism
- no system can totally enslave an individual's thinking
- the pain is caused by the system - but the system is
maintained by people
- people as well as systems need to change

* you cannot reduce the system to the individual

- systems have laws, trends and tendencies which continue
independent of the individual people within then
- people in systems are in the main interchangeable
- even when individuals decide to change a system the
constraints of the wider system cannot be ignored
- if individuals reject the systems values they may be
rejected by the system
- we are born into systems we can barely discern because we
take them for granted

So the theory is a paradox or polarity ..... sometimes I think
this is the essence of systems thinking - embracing the
polarities - but then what actions make sense in the face of that?

At the moment I am wrestling with this (and what I say probably
sounds a little pedestrian)but it seems we might

1 engage individuals in the task
2 identify the systemic factors
3 identify the individual factors
4 link the individual and the systemic factors and look for the
patterns
5 develop plans which change the system and support change in
individuals

?? any thoughts or examples.... I will try to think of some


Julie Beedon
VISTA Consulting - for a better future
julie@vistabee.win-uk.net

-- 

Julie Beedon <julie@vistabee.win-uk.net>

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