On Fri, 16 Feb 1996, Virginia I. Shafer wrote:
> I have had a vision of the future organizational structure as a wheel
>for several years. The common or shared functions reside on the "hub"
>and each "spoke" is a product line or customer group served. The
>"wheel," or outer rim represents the identity or culture that ties them
>all together.
> Gee, in the old days at the bar on a Friday night, this concept took hours
> to get across. And here you bright people have it in one go! Unless the
> wheel is seen as rolling down a road, then I'd have to continue the
> metaphor to explain the road and the tread and...
Great image, Ginger. It brings to mind the verse from the Tao Te Ching
which goes something like this.
Thirty spokes surround the hub.
It is the space in the center which makes it useful.
Mold clay into a vessel,
From its emptiness comes its utility.
Cut a window and a door in a wall,
Their openness is the source of their value.
Therefore, it is by the existence of things that we profit,
And by the emptiness of things that we are served.
Forgive the rough translation, I don't have my favorite sourcebook handy.
And one other thing, Ginger. Perhaps it was some other aspect of the
"system" that made it take "hours" to explain back in the bar on Friday
night, We are all pretty sharp, I know, but even we might have problems
remaining coherent in similar conditions...
-- Tobin Quereau quereau@austin.cc.tx.usLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>