Re: Handling Power and Politics LO2454

Joe O'Keeffe (100307.3672@compuserve.com)
18 Aug 95 11:21:53 EDT

Replying to LO2442 --

((Yes - okay. But since we are working in "as is" organisations, we I think
owe it to ourselves to work from where we are. In Ireland they have a joke
about the English tourist who asks an old farmer how he might get to
Dublin, and the farmer thinks for a bit and says, "well, sonny, if I were
going to Dublin I wouldn't have started from here".

We're trying to get to Dublin, for real, aren't we? And we have to start
from here! So I believe there is a great opportunity to think very
creatively about "should be" organisations, as long as we don't forget the
"as is".))

John Peters related a story by one Irish Philosopher [we only have about
6m of them, i.e. entire population]. Here is a follow-on story from
Ireland.

Charles Handy was born in Kildare in Ireland, the son of an Archdeacon,
and educated in Ireland, England (Oxford Univ.) and the USA (M.I.T.). His
recent book "The Empty Raincoat : Making Sense of the Future" (1994) has
the following tale :

"The Road to Davy's Bar

The Wicklow Mountains...an area of wild beauty...with unmarked roads...
Once I stopped and asked the way. 'Sure, it's easy,' the local replied.
'Just keep going the way you are, straight ahead, and after a while you'll
cross a small bridge with Davy's Bar on the far side, you can't miss it!'
'Yes, Ive got that,' I said, 'straight on to Davy's Bar.' 'That's right.
Well, half a mile before you get there, turn to your right up the hill.'

It seemed so logical that I thanked him and drove off. By the time I
realised that the logic made no sense he had disappeared. As I made my way
down to Davy's Bar wondering which of the roads to the right to take, I
reflected that he had just given me a vivid example of paradox, perhaps
even the paradox of our times : ***by the time you know where you ought to
go, it's too late to go there; or, more dramatically, if you keep on going
the way you are, you will miss the road to the future***.

Because, like my Irishman, it is easy to explain things looking backwards,
we think we can then predict them forwards. It doesn't work, as many
economists know to their cost. The world keeps changing. It is one of the
paradoxes of success that the things and the ways which got you where you
are, are seldom the things to keep you there. If you think that they are,
and that you know the way to the future because it is a continuation of
where you've come from, you may well end up in Davy's Bar, with nothing
left but a chance to drown your sorrows and reminisce about times past."

This book has some other vivid images for our times, e.g. Chapter 7 on
"Subsidiarity". Handy says the term was coined by the Roman Catholic
Church. It was last restated in a papal encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno, in
1941: 'It is an in-justice, a grave evil and a disturbance of right order
for a large and higher organisation to arrogate to itself functions which
can be performed efficiently by smaller and lower bodies...' Strong words.
I translate them more simply - ***stealing people's responsibilities is
wrong***.

This ranks as one of the best books I have read in recent times. Handy
reaches here for a philosophy 'where life and work are re-grounded in a
natural sense of continuity, connection and purposeful direction.' IMHO,
this illustrates why the world needs the ideas of the Learning
Organisation today. I have not seen it on sale in the USA...watch out for
it.

--
Joe O'Keeffe
100307.3672@compuserve.com     "In dreams begins responsibility"
Strategic Resources Ltd.,                                  W.B.Yeats
Robin Hill Ave., 
College Road,
Cork, Ireland.
Ph/fax 353-21-342891