Traditional Wisdom... LO9192

Keith Cowan (72212.51@CompuServe.COM)
16 Aug 96 20:39:00 EDT

Replying to LO9003 --

"Robert Bacal" <dbt359@freenet.mb.ca> makes several valid observations
regarding my insistence that "the system" can be the source of every
performance problem:

>...My underlying assumption is that even when a staff member is screwed
>around, they still have a responsibility to themselves to address the
>problem. I HAVE seen people who believe the system is out to get
>them, or management, and take that perspective wherever they go. The
>result is, after the honeymoon phase, their approach, and lack of
>personal responsibility makes them expendable (that's a mild word).
>
>The destruction they can render to those around them is pretty
>astounding. Was it bad management? the system? the person? In some
>measure, the causes would come from all of these.

I am not disagreeing that some people can become distructive. Are they
borne that way? Were they that way when they were hired? Did they develop
that way in their current company? I have "retrieved" such people by
"reading the riot act" and have also moved others along to another company
if they did not respond to that treatment.

I am enthusiastically in agreement that people are responsible for their
own destinies. I am also realistic enough to know that only one on five
will ever take on that personal responsibility. Some of the most bitter
employees are those that tried to change the system and failed repeatedly
because management were not receptive. Many of these people are managers
themselves.

The real question I would leave is that if the participants in LO do not
attribute root causes of corporate performance to "the system", who will
ever embrace that approach? Food for thought....Keith

-- 

Keith Cowan <72212.51@CompuServe.COM>

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