Entrepreneurship LO7883

John Woods (jwoods@execpc.com)
Fri, 14 Jun 1996 09:53:56 -0500

Replying to LO7861 --

Maria Ivancic wrote about the idea of the "entrepreneur attitude":

>I don't think that people do chose to behave like this. This attitude
>has come upon them so slowly, over years of abuse (perceived or
>otherwise) from management, that they may not even realise that they
>think differently to some other employees. I think the reason that
>people are so wary of those who do challenge the status quo is that they
>are afraid of them and the impact they may have on their lives. They
>may not be happy with their lot but they consider it to be fairly safe.
>They fear anyone or anything that will upset their little world. They
>believe that experience has shown them that change usually means things
>will get worse, not better.
>
>It is a very sad perception of the world that these people have, but it
>is very real for them, and the problem they create is very real for any
>company.

This point of view seems a little oriented toward the "blame the person"
perspective. I'd suggest that the attitude described comes from people
adapting to management's attitude and the culture of the organization or,
more broadly, "the system." Resistance to change comes from believing that
resistance to change is how you are successful. When people enter an
organization, they are not going to know the ropes, they may have ideas
about how to do things differently, but in most organizations, they quickly
learn how to do it the company's way, and there is little percentage in
trying to be different. Then when someone tries to foist on them the idea
of something like the "Learning Organization," (uh oh, another one!) it will
naturally seem to them smart to resist such ideas--they have been socialized
to do so.

The point is that when we encounter such behavior, we need to look beyond
the individual. We need to look at the system and the culture of the
company. Such behavior is often or usually symptomatic of problems that
extend beyond the individual. Only when these people come to appreciate
through experience that resisting change no longer makes sense, that the
culture has really changed, which means that top management must walk the
talk without deviation until such culture is well-entrenched. Indeed we
may come to understand that change is the nature of things, and the only
issue is whether it will push us around or whether we will participate and
shape its direction.

John Woods
jwoods@execpc.com

-- 

John Woods <jwoods@execpc.com>

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