Re: Wheatley List
Paul Mackey (mackeyp@Pwc-Tpc.ca)
Wed, 18 Jan 95 9:54:31 GMT (Original EST)
Wheatley's book proposes that we consider new models for change in
organizations which draw from the new theories in science: biology, chaos
theory, quantum physics etc. These sciences describe a universe in which
there is dynamic and continuous change but still has an inherent orderliness.
" the layers of complexity, the sense of things being beyond our control and
out of control are but signals of our failure to understand a deeper reality
of organizational life and life in general"
Meg challenges us to "sit in the unfamiliar seat of not knowing and open
ourselves to radically new ideas."
She suggests that " to be responsible inventors and discoverers,... we need
the courage to let go of the old world, to relinquish most of what we have
cherished, to abandon our interpretations about what does and what does not
work."
To list members: How can executives and managers (- who have risen through
a heirarchcal bureaucracy using a more mechanistic- cause /effect model -)
discover how to let go of the familiar approaches. Does the sense that they
are faced with precieved catostrphic changes in funding, mission, and
employee expectations etc. help in their discovery or does it reinforce old
paradigms?
mackeyp@Pwc-Tpc.ca
Paul Mackey
"Futures Advisor" to ADM Human Resources
Public Works and Government Services Canada,
A230 Tupper Bldg. Ottawa, Ont. Canada, K1A 0M2