Thank you, Robert, for the following:
I agree to some extent, but the interesting thing about systems thinking
is that we must also apply it to management. So by the same logic, there
is also no such thing as bad managers, only managers that are working in
bad systems, or who are, themselves asked to do the wrong things.
If this is so, then it brings us to a very odd, and to me disconcerting
state of affairs. No bad managers, no bad employees, only bad systems.
This has some serious implications regarding issues of personal
responsibility and accountability, and has the potential for allowing
almost everyone to blame the system. Come to think of it, isn't that the
case in society in general?
== end quote ==
This is the point to personal responsibility. We will all benefit when we
move our thinking beyond the who -- or what -- is at fault, and focus
instead on what needs to be done and -- most importantly -- by whom. Bad
systems were good systems when they were originally created, they have
either gotten out of date, or had unintended side-effects. If we can
identify what needs to be done now, and who can do it, we will have added
a lot of value to the system.
We have learned from systemic thinking that we don't know the answers to
even the apparently simple questions. Therefore, most improvement can
only be incremental and at best experimentally identified. We are unable
to identify the adverse consequences of almost any action we can
undertake. That is part of the reason that we ended up with the systems
we have now. We did not understand the adverse consequences of those
systems when they were being implemented.
--Rol Fessenden LL Bean, Inc. 76234.3636@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>