Traditional Wisdom LO9083

Roxanne S. Abbas (75263.3305@CompuServe.COM)
13 Aug 96 17:10:46 EDT

Replying to LO9030 --

Robert says:

"I think that focusing ONLY on one component doesn't push us to systems
thinking, and I see little difference between looking only at systems and
looking only at staff (the old school)...both allow total abdication, and
organizational blindness.Is looking at the system, the same old process of
segmenting everything, but with a different target?"

Robert,

I have always thought of the term "system" as being inclusive of the roles
and responsibilites of staff and managers. Like Keith, I can't remember
running into any "bad" people in the many organizations I've consulted
with over the years and I agree that this is probably not because Keith
and I are "lucky". But I have seen many fine people struggling in an
unhealthy culture. Is "culture" different from "system"? I believe that
we are all (regardless of how we measure on the responsibility index)
influenced by the environment we live and work in. Over time most of us
will begin to look and act like the people we keep company with. Of
course, I will be influenced them simultaneously. But there have been a
couple of times in my work life that the culture (or system) has been so
sick that I decided that it was necessary for me to withdraw in order to
protect myself.

Best regards,

--

Roxanne Abbas 75263.3305@compuserve.com Roxanne

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