Dealing with limitations LO8018

Dr. Scott J. Simmerman (74170.1061@CompuServe.COM)
21 Jun 96 11:33:28 EDT

Replying to LO7963 --

Building on Rol's comments in LO 7894 and Phillip Spencer's comments in
LO7963, I'd just like to add two comments from, Square Wheels of Personal
Growth and Development, my booklet for organizational development.

There are three metaphors related to the comments about the negative influence
of others. The first relates to the Crab Bucket Syndrome. This is the
well-known observation that if one crab is working to get out of the bucket
and begins to succeed, it is a certainty that others in the bucket will reach
up and pull the crab back in.

Let's not be anthromorphic and attribute intentions here, though, let's only
look at the observable behaviors.

The second refers to The Irish Poem, (which appeared in a recent movie and
which I first saw a couple of years ago):

May those that love us love us.
And for those that don't love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He cannot turn their hearts,
may He turn their ankles
So we will know them by their limp.

Now, this may bring to mind the vision of limping crabs, which is okay if this
is useful to you in identifying those whose behavior is to pull you back into
the bucket.

Lastly, there is the Swedish Proverb:

God gives each bird his worm,
but He does not throw it into the nest.

The opportunities for getting out of the ditch and up on the road are there
for us, but we need to recognize the realities of our "team of supporters" and
identify those up on the road and farther along on the journey. Choose not to
get bogged down by muddy, limping crabs who can't find their own worms.

Every so often, step back from the wagon and take a look at what's really
happening.

For the Pun of It!

-- 

Scott Simmerman Performance Management Company, 3 Old Oak Drive, Taylors SC USA 29687-6624 74170.1061@compuserve.com

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