Does everyone remember the square wheels cartoon? A waggon (the
organization) with square wheels is being pulled ahead by the CEO towards
some distant objective, and pushed from behind (by the workers) who share
none of the vista seen by the CEO. The square wheels guarantee bumpy
progress. The waggon is loaded with round wheels (the ideas of the
workers) but management does not stop and make use of them.
Well, I have come across another situation. The waggon is exactly the
same, with workers pushing from behind, but instead of the CEO out front
pulling it forward there is another group of workers PUSHING from the
front in the opposite direction. Naturally the workers cannot see each
other and push all the harder in order to keep the waggon rolling. The
CEO is out in the vista somewhere playing golf. The organisation (the
waggon) performs a random walk as the opposing teams do their best to keep
it going somewhere - anywhere. They believe it would be a terrible crime
if the waggon should stop moving (you can imagine all the frantic
activity, and dust, and groans etc etc).
[Host's Note: The Square Wheels cartoon is by our Scott Simmerman, a
frequent contributor here. ...Rick]
Regards
Keith
Keith Sandrock Systems/Johannesburg Technology (JOHANTEC)
FAX 27-11-339-7997 KSAND@hertz.wits.mech.ac.za
--"K SANDROCK" <KSAND@hertz.mech.wits.ac.za>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>