Hi Joe,
thanks for giving me a present to ponder about.
JOE_PODOLSKY@HP-PaloAlto-om4.om.hp.com wrote, amongst others,:
> "To accomplish great things,
> We must not only act, but also dream;
> Not only plan, but also believe."
>
> By Anatole France (quoted in _Forbes_ magazine, 12/30/96)
And summarized my career so far:
- i've worked with a very large (american) organization in Europe
- i've, amongst others, tried to make an internal IT department work
better, more customer focussed,
- i've worked there as an intrapeneur in a factory
- i've laughed about Dilbertian situation "avant la lettre"
- i've tried to create "spin-offs"
- i even managed for some of my co-workers to "to take charge of their own
lives (they decided to leave the company and advised me to do the same)
and told managers to expect them to do that."
- i held a very good track-record
- i was implementing a learning organization, using the five disciplines
and the ten commandments as written by Gifford Pinchot III (i didn't hear
from him until now, but we sure applied these rules)
- we (our teams) held very good track-records
....
- and our factory was closed for cost cutting reasons (having only one
facility meant less guards (who were to be out-sourced anyway); just as
had been predicted by Goldratt: you become to vulnerable for corporate
HQ's)
- and i was fired just like that (the responsible director told me: "you
are 100% right, but we are not willing to admit it", he did, he really did
admit this (and i came to work willing to be fired, so who was i to
complain?)).
Then i started my own consulting business and met the other situations:
> "The time (and money, do not forget the money) they have to invest may really put a
> strain on their personal lives. And they lose the associations with colleagues who
> are all working for greater purposes that can be achieved only in large
> organizations."
Did i loose sight of my dream? No, strangely i didn't. I sometimes doubted
myself, whether i could do it, but the vision just reaffirmed itself, it
got stronger. I know now it is not a dream: it is reality in creating,
being created.
So i was brought into contact with others, got new opportunities, new
friends and colleagues, new teachers, learned from the errors i made. So
now i find myself sharpening the concepts and ideas, creating the tools
and techniques, making the inventions necessary to develop further these
fascinating new living entities called organizations ("organo sapiens
creatiens", the knowing creating organizations)
Now i can see even much clearer what has occured, what choices were made,
what brought us here and what lyes ahead: the shifts in thinking, feeling
and acting that is occuring all over the world. The (r)evolution, or
perhaps renaisance, it is christmas after all, that is happening all
around us: this is a very interesting time.
I believe that organizations are governed by the "laws" of evolution, as
all life is, working through "punctured equilibrium": making sudden shifts
in numbers and types of species and then selecting, testing and
multiplying the succesful again. At the same time the face of the world
changes, (as for instance bisons co-created the priaries (or the cars
created the traffic system)). And the current "organisational dinosaures
(remember, how they used to laugh at mamals)" ("organo structuriens
functiens", the functionally structured organization) are being eliminated
or are adapting to a wonderful disaster called "information technology".
You see it as you read this.
The, how shall i call it, the thing we, as humans, have to realize, the
cultural change we are making, has something to do with, again searching
for words, engaging our deepest emotions, our fears: we can no longer hide
them, we cannot let them have or take control, we cannot loose them, there
will be no father, nor mother (company, he?), to shield us; they are us,
we are them, beings, no choice but to choose, to choose a healthy, happy,
fulfilling life.
Jan
--Drs J.C. Lelie CPIM janlelie@pop.pi.net (J.C. Lelie) @date@ @time@ CREATECH/LOGISENS - Sparring Partner in Logistical Development - + (31) 70 3243475 Fax: idem or + (31) 40 2443225
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>