Hi, y'all. This continues to be an interesting dialog on cartoons,
metaphor, communications and organizational awareness. And the learning
points seem diverse and numerous. I wrote to Michael Erickson last night
about his post on the use of illustrations at Boeing about my lurking on
this Dilbert theme.
I was stimulated to write based on Ivan's recent post (LO10695) -- He
makes a number of good points (and I'll make no attempt to rehash them).
As we've pointed out many times in this forum, we go through numerous and
often cyclical Big Fads, which these cartoons address admirably from the
worker's point of view. At the same time, the negativity of the cartoons
does leave a void about possible solutions and ideas for improvement.
They don't exactly set the stage for constructive dialog, eh? But
managements miss the possibilities to engage in constructive dialog.
"I don't want any Yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the
truth even if it costs them their job."
Samuel Goldwyn
My personal reactions to the cartoons find them humorous and worth saving.
After all, I've been cutting cartoons from magazines and papers for
upwards of 20 years. The Far Side, Frank & Ernest, Pluggers and others
are well worth collecting, especially the ones that reframe reality.
Mostly, I've seen the Dilbert ones posted up for apparently negative
reasons. They highlight existing behavior (bad) and stupid corporate
decisions (bad), themes like TQM and ISO 9000, and other issues; thier
negativity makes coworkers laugh. The themes tend to make fun of people /
job roles directly (e.g. the evil HR cat who has no other purpose than to
change the things that people like to make them miserable) and aren't
generally used for much constructive change.
(Wouldn't it be interesting to have people select their favorite
illustration from the series and have teams of people discuss the issues
raised as a tool for understanding perspective and generating dialog?)
I find Ivan's points on issues of control exceptional, as are John
Constantine's issues on energy.
Right now, Dilbert's "in." And there certainly is a reality to the
postings. I'm not proposing that Scott Adams change his thrust -- he's in
it for the money and not for any higher purpose.
And wouldn't it be nice to see a more useful framework evolve from this
powerful theme.
But I guess it is the same as the news media and "good news" versus
"disasters" and what makes the front pages. We all know what sells!
As Woody Allen said,
More than anytime in history mankind faces a crossroads.
One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness,
the other leads to extinction.
Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Maybe if each of us could only see a little of ourselves in the thread and
become uncomfortable enough to do something differently,
For the Fun of It!
--Scott Simmerman Performance Management Company, 3 Old Oak Drive, Taylors SC USA 29687-6624 74170.1061@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>