Many thanks to all the very kind people who have written personal replies
to this thread. And thank you to those who have said such nice things
publicly. (I've put all of the personal replies in a folder, and will
reply to them as soon as I get caught up on some work.)
It is interesting to see the private observations of people. Some thought
I was hurt and perhaps even a little angry. Others thought I was thinking
about not participating on the list. I can see how these ideas could come
about, but neither are true.
My intention was to:
1) Honestly find out why people felt that incremental improvement was not
an enemy to innovation. Everyday I face really difficult business
challenges. Andrew Grove would say that Novell is at a strategic
inflection point. The rules of our business has changed, but its not clear
to me -- and many of the people I work with -- exactly what the new rules
are. Incremental improvement isn't producing the results we need. And,
Andrew Grove, in his book "Only the Paranoid Survive," suggests that at
such times the answer is an entirely new way of doing business. I don't
want to see my company go extinct, and so I'm fighting as hard as I can to
figure out what's going on.
2) I like Tom Peters. I like his passion. I like his willingness to become
his own critic, and change his thinking. People do seem to either like him
a lot or disdain him. I know why I like him, and I wanted to understand
better why people don't.
3) I've been reflecting lately on the contribution I'm making to the world
in which I live. As part of that reflection I wondered about the value of
my contributions to this list, especially since I'm not a very educated
person. I'm content with the fact that I share my thoughts and feelings
openly, and that I think, on the whole, I think fairly well. But sometimes
I get frustrated with my own logic and with my own thinking. I could see
how it was possible for someone to think that my participation decreased
the value of the list. I wanted to understand their feelings so I could
deepen my reflection and come to see my own weaknesses better.
A month or so ago I was going to unsubscribe from the list. I had just
filed for divorce, my wife was pregnant, and my life was falling apart
around me. I was in so much emotional pain I could hardly function as a
human being (just ask Jeff Marchek, who had the unpleasant experience of
having lunch with me one day. . .amazingly enough he still calls to see if
I want to have lunch with him. . .he's a good friend). This is why I
didn't respond to the messages sooner. . .my emotions were bouncing all
over the place.
My wife and I are back together, and things are looking a little more
hopeful. The story of my divorce -- and then not-divorce -- is an
interesting one, that I think has great pertinence to Personal Mastery and
to the "Depression" thread, so I'll share it sometime. I've learned a
whole lot about myself over the last few months. I think there are lessons
we could all benefit from the story, at least that's what my friends keep
telling me.
-- Ben Compton The Accidental Learning Group Work: (801) 222-6178 Improving Business through Science and Art bcompton@geocities.com http://www.e-ad.com/ben/BEN.HTMLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>