Hello all.
In my "Corporate Cartoonist" role, I also have a relationship with
Dilbert, but more as a competitor, not as Ben described-the sabateur. I
agree that Dilbert presents problems without solutions, and yes, Scott
Adams is doing the same job that editorial and newpaper cartoonists have
done for years-commenting on the state of the world. (and making a good
living at it... )
Pointing out hypocracy, foolishness and the like is the cartoonist role.
This function pushes people to begin thinking for themselves. You might
notice that in "command and control" oriented countries (as well as
businesses and schools) the cartoonist is among the first to be pounded
into submission by the powers that be (along with writers and what ever
fits the label of "intellectuals").
When you point out problems, or tell the truth too bluntly, you run the
risk of being run out of town on a rail. (It's a dirty job, but somebody
has to do it). Cartoons show the pain. It's important to know the source
of the pain, and begin to deal with it. Every human needs to face the
fact that WE have a hidden "stupid" muscle that can flex itself at any
time. It's not dis-honorable or dis-loyal to openly express pain, or
admit that while we are mostly smart people, our "stupid muscle" will have
it's effect now and then. That's why we work in teams, to help each other
manage our "stupid muscle" (I'm especially thankfull for my wife on this
count).
In the Boeing company, the managers include Dilbert cartoons in their
presentation material. I stay employed in the same way. I draw a lot of
pictures of hysterical people, rediculous analogies and complicated
concept models designed to elicit questions, reactions and conversation.
Talking about our foolishnesses openly, and being willing to laugh at
ourselves goes a long way toward building communication bridges between
managment and worker, releaving our fears, tensions and panics, as well as
contributes towards the building of good systems, processes and customs in
our business environment.
Scott Adams is not just "mocking management" to get rich. He is pointing
out how deeply intrenched a lot of our management mental models are. If
you or I entered management, we'd have to struggle with them too, because
we will all revert to our old ideas about how management works if we are
pushed hard enough, and find ourselves bullying a subordinate or getting
caught up in some insignificant detail and sacrifice something important
for all the wrong reasons. We haven't got a clue how much we have to
unlearn.
If we feel that we are among those on the leading edge of all this change
(Learning Org stuff-Chaos Theory-People focus, etc.) and can't be suckered
into reverting to some olde idea, just wait. A lot of these "new" ideas
don't run that deep yet. We don't yet understand all we know with any
depth, though we all probably think "I'll never do that".
Having been there and done that, (made all those mistakes in triplicate) I
have to say that the Cartoonist is for me, one of the more important
people to be paying attention to, because they keep me honest and remind
me that I will have to really work at making changes and keeping them.
I know that my management is sincere. They deeply care about the work
they are doing (just as Ben Compton seems to express in his post). But
they are human (isn't there a rule of thumb in the LO world that says, "if
you aren't making mistakes, your not learning"?) We can't let ourselves
get too arrogant about our accomplishments and forget all the wrong paths
we went down before we discovered the right one. This also is part of
learning. This is also part of remembering, and keeping the lesson.
I would like to propose that you use Dilbert as a foil to test you motives
by. If the shoe fits, change. If not, look anyway. By the way, I've
noticed that Dilbert also shows a lot of flaws in how people respond to
bad management by giving up their own honesty or rationality (or self
respect) and inadvertantly reward bad management. So it's not all one
way. Ben might have been feeling the management focus because he's in
management, but the rest of us are getting "exposed" too.
Hang in....
Michael Erickson (throckmorton scribblemonger... That guy what draws)
sysengr@atc.boeing.com
--Michael Erickson <sysengr@atc.boeing.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>