If this happens to anyone else, it will be easier for me if you would
please send the correction to the mailing list, learning-org@world.std.com
Richard Karash ("Rick") | (o) 508-879-8301 | Mac * Flying
Innovation Associates, Inc. | (fax) 508-626-2205 | Systems Thinking
3 Speen St, Framingham MA 01701 | rkarash@world.std.com | Std. Disclaimer
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 14:25:36 -0800
From: Richard Burg <raburg@well.sf.ca.us>
To: learning-org-approval@world.std.com
Subject: Correction to Last Posting ...
I seem to have an editor which sometimes pushes text off the screen, onl y
to confound the meaning when it is sent and delivered through the net.
I copied myself on the last posting and discovered a problem in the last
paragraph. Perhaps you can intercept it before you post it to the list.
Correction (and significant edit) to last paragraph:
This interaction does not mean that the consultant tells members of the
organization what to do. We only create experiences between people which
open up the possibility for better relationships, increased awareness, and
setting in which it *is possible* to inquire about assumptions. The danger
of telling the client what to do is that you are attempting an import
activity into an open system that may not be able to integrate it. If
there is no resonance with the imported idea or capacity to process it
(the consultant's idea or opinion), it will have an outcome at odds with
the consultant's intent. One possible unintended consequence of this
incongruence can be a serious diminishment of the authority of the
consultation and those who sanctioned it. When the Quality programs in
organizations falter, how often are the consultants who implemented
Quality several years earlier called back?
-----
Host's Note: In case it may help, portions of Richard Burg's original
posting are reproduced here:
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 10:42:40 -0800
From: Richard Burg <raburg@well.sf.ca.us>
To: learning-org@world.std.com
Subject: Re: Jonah and Mental Models
>From: Jim Michmerhuizen <jamzen@world.std.com>
>... A single conversation, by the way it is conducted (even
>more than by its subject matter or its outcome), can have an enormous
>impact on other conversations, subsequent to it, on utterly unrelated topics.
I more than agree - it is a fundamental premise of our approach to helping
organizations improve...
[...snip! down to last paragraph...]
This interaction does not mean that the consultant tells members of the
organization what to do. We only create experiences between people which
open up the possibility for better relationships, increased awareness, and
setting in which it *is possible* to inquire about assumptions. The danger
of telling the client what to do is that you are attempting an import
activity into an open system. If there is no readiness or context for the
import, it will not find fertile ground and the overall consequence of the
rejection of the idea will be a setback to the authority of the
consultation and those who sanctioned it. When someone comments that the
Quality program in an organization has faltered, they rarely consider
bringing back the consultants whose training program was used to install
Quality!
[...snip! Cut sig...]