> From: Benjamin Compton <bcompton@geocities.com>
> Date: Mon, 07 Oct 1996 20:31:22 -0700
> ....
> At some point in life, every person comes to the realization that they
> must decide between seeking a secure and stable life (where the status quo
> is enthroned, never being challenged), or a life full of creative
> expression (developing and maintaining creative tension). In fact, I
> believe that in a very real way these are basic human desires -- and, they
> are fundamentally opposed to one another.
Ben,
I think you've given us an elegant statement of a basic dilemma for
individuals and, as you point out, for organizations. However, I don't
think that it happens just at one point in time. I think that we must
revisit this (and other) basic issues whenever our established ways of
managing our lives do not work adequately in a new set of circumstances.
I do a fair amount of therapy with people who have chronic medical
conditions. Because their physical capacities have been severely limited,
their ability to cope with their lives often becomes impaired. When they
realize that their illness is chronice (and not going away anytime soon)
they need to adjust their expectations of themselves in this new context
so they don't "over-do", see themselves as failures, or expect other
people to do everything for them.
I don't mean to imply that individuals with chronic illness cannot live
the kind of creative life you describe, just that they must renegotiate
the balance between the two sides of the dilemma. I think that
corporations probably go through a similar process of renegotiation at
various times - perhaps as they enlarge and have to reorganize, perhaps as
the environment changes in important ways.
A few personal questions: do you feel that you've made some final
determination on that dilemma for yourself? From your posts you certainly
seem like you lean toward the creative (or, I think someone once used the
term "authentic") life. What kind of process did you go through to get
there? Perhaps this process is a big part of what shifting into a LO
mind-set is all about?
Regards,
Jeff
--Jeff Brooks <BrooksJeff@AOL.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>