Your post is a fascinating example of how the "frame" or metaphor can
affect the communication of a message. Whereas, given my particular
background, I think of the "Aikido" example as particularly appropriate,
apparently the executives you were working with did not. I am not
convinced it was the concept--that of meeting your customers needs in view
of their mental models--that was the stumbling block, but the unfortunate
association with "manipulation" which seemed so hard to shake. In some
models it would be very easy to label this as "resistance" on the part of
the executives!
I wonder if we applied the concept that was being advanced, there might be
some other way of working with the energy (mental models, etc.) of the
people at hand to help them hear the intended message rather than the form
in which it was packaged. I'm wondering further what frame was brought
into the training when the Aikido metaphor was dropped. Was the central
theme of the training dropped as well? And, if not, what metaphor or model
worked better for this group of executives?
Tobin Quereau
quereau@austin.cc.tx.us
On Wed, 29 Mar 1995 jack@his.com wrote:
>
> Subject: Re: Resistance to change LO563
>
> ...[snip]...
> We designed a set of exercises under the rubric "Aikido" into our training
> for executives relative to "mastering change", with this particular
> approach as the foundation. Essentially, we were saying, find a way to
> align the wants of the other person with the desired change (the framing
> issue) and all his/her energy will move to support change rather than
> oppose it. The executives immediately smelled something inauthentic in
> this approach, and labeled it "manipulative". We were unable to redesign
> so as to meet this objection, since the methodology involved finding out
> the presumed "opponent" wants and then tailoring your approach to feed
> those feelings. The stigma attached to this module after only a couple of
> deliveries proved too difficult to shake, and we dropped the module from
> the training after only two excursions...
>
> ...[snip]...
>