In a message dated 95-10-09 13:19:37 EDT, Jim Michmerhuizen writes:
>snip...
>An important component of the concept, it seems to me, is that an
intervention
>is risky.
>snip...
>There _must_ be some useful distinction between "intervention" and plain old
>"outside initiative".
I'm an old organization development (OD) specialist (and I mean "old" -- I
trained in the early 1970s and I was in my late '30s then). Intervention
is the very stuff of which good OD is made. The better the intervention,
the better the OD. (At its worst, intervention amounts to mere meddling.)
Interventions can be risky, but not necessarily so. Frankly, it all
depends on who's intervening in what.
To intervene is to come between. To intervene in events or processes is
to come between them and their likely outcomes. In other words, to
intervene is to alter the course of events and thus their outcomes (and
it's not far removed from purposeful, intentional interference).
That raises questions of ethics, responsibility, authority, rights,
motives, and all manner of other considerations. So, Jim, intervention is
far, far removed from the simple exercise of initiative.
-- Fred Nickols nickols@aol.com