Change, leverage, frustration LO7763

Ram Sundaram (sundar@sriven.scs.co.in)
Thu, 6 Jun 96 12:07 GMT+0500

Hiya people,

Having hibernated for the past few weeks, I am back. I was in a deep
thought mode where I wanted to find answers to my questions. I found them
today and would like to share them with you.

We have been talking about Change *in everything* and I can feel some kind
of discontent in many threads. I went through the phase and almost gave
up. To cut a long story short I think I found answers for initiating
change which will do away with the discontent.

I believe a person who needs to change a system needs to understand
his/her leverage in the system.

After understanding this, he/she goes about changing the system according
to his/her capabilities.

The changes thus brought, should be constantly 'advertised' for others to
a) understand the benefits b) To gain further leverage.

As the person's leverage increases, he/she can widen the scope of change
and continue the process.

During this process, he/she needs to create new players who will continue
the work in different parts of the system.

If we realize this we can focus more on the action and education than
wishing and discussing.

I believe frustration arises because we 'bite more than we can chew' and
then later 'spit it out'. We remain hungry, not realizing the solution
lies with in us.

This brought me to another question

What if the changes initiated by people with higher leverage do not
'dovetail' with the changes initiated by people with lower leverage ?

The individual parts look good, but the sum is not 'satisfying'. The
system has to flow concurrently at all points in time for the whole to be
satisfactory. Having been a programmer, I know this is true.

Peter Senge said 'The more you push the system, the more the system pushes
back'

He could have said 'Find those parts of the system which you can push and
will give in. Move in there and sit tight. Push some more. Continue till
you have moulded and shaped your CORNER OF THE the system the way you want
it'.

..ram
sundar@sriven.scs.co.in

Ram Sundaram

-- 

sundar@sriven.scs.co.in (Ram Sundaram)

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>