In a message dated 97-01-28 01:22:32 EST, dank@novanova.com (Dan Kaufmann)
writes:
> Based on recent personal experience I would like to ask the group to
> consider the concept of the hidden organization. Consider for a moment
> situations where within a group of people it is appropriate for an
> individual to take the center stage in terms of driving a project (my
> personal experience of late where it was necessary for my colleague to be
> considered the project owner). And yet, behind the individual are many
> others who contribute to the conceptual formulation of the idea, yet the
> rest of the group may not be public at all.
This is an interesting question. I've often wondered how often the
superstar CEOs featured in laudatory media stories (and management
courses) are figureheads who are almost literally creations of
behind-the-scenes types. Obviously there are real visionaries and real
leaders out there, but there have got to be some Orville Redenbachers,
too. Probably the majority fall into the "I owe my success to..." school.
Guess I'm betraying my prejudice that we generally have more to learn
about organizations from second level management types than from CEOs who
write books.
-Dick Jacobs
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>