RE: The comments of Jyotsna Pattabiraman: "this has killed most of my
enthusiasm to do..."
You bet it is dangerous. Enthusiasm killers are dangerous. Don't give into
them. They are really killing YOU. At least that's my opinion. I find
myself doing a lot of "working around the edges" or quietly working toward
my own personal dream.
I think this is where the discipline of SHARED VISION is critical, to have
a vision to share, you must first have your own vision for yourself. While
the dream killers do control (to a certain extent) my work life, they can't
touch my "at home" life. They can't stop me from learning or reading, or
experimenting on my home computer-and talking to my wife (who is better
educated than I and a great "foil" for bouncing ideas and concepts off of).
I find curiosity to be something that needs to be cultivated. Having
some "bozo" shutting me off from exploring my curiosities is something
I don't let happen. If I can't read the new thing "here", then I'll get
it home and read it there. I guess this is the revolutionary in me
talking, but I can't apologize. The world is too big, and I'm infatuated
with it's complexities and marvelous interplay of "stuff".
Conformance is something we are taught where ever we live and in what
ever culture we call home. It comes in different forms and is stronger
or weaker in different places, but it is always there. The pressure to
give up, conform, submit to the will of "those who know" has been one of
the forces driving social and politial change for thousands of years
(look at europe in the middle ages). The LO discipline of MENTAL MODELS
suggests we keep looking at the things we hold to be true-to see if they
really are or not. It takes a certain amount of enthusiastic exploration
to do that, as well as the guts (or stubborness) not to give up when it
flies in the face of what is accepted as normal.
So that's how I approach it. I'm a pain in the neck to some who work
around me, but I try to be a polite and reasonably quiet about it-but I
refuse to "not think" because to my mind, it's just another form of
committing suicide.
I hope that helps.
later....
Michael Erickson
On Thu, 13 Jun 1996, Jyotsna Pattabiraman wrote:
> Replying to LO7844 from Michael Erickson--
> non-receptive authority figure can kill initiative and learning.
>
> Over time ,I have found that this has killed most of my enthusiasm to do
> anything at all in many areas of my life !!I find this dangerous.
>
> How do I deal with this ?
--Michael Erickson <sysengr@atc.boeing.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>