Rol Fessenden <76234.3636@CompuServe.COM> makes an eloquent plea for taking
personal responsibility, and says, in part:
>...
>In other words, there is an opportunity for individuals to make themselves
>significant in the cosmos. We get to choose our own roles in the world. The
>magnitude of what we may accomplish is unimaginable until we begin the struggle.
>
>Some of the disagreement going on in this thread is over the acceptance of
>responsibility versus 'acceptance of blame'. My focus is clear. Blaming is not
>a useful activity, whether it be to blame management, the system, or the
>participants in the organization. All three blamings are equally irrelevant,
>equally useless. Accepting blame and accepting responsibility are different at
>their core. The former is useless, the latter is grand, uplifting, and
>empowering. The latter is a hell of a lot of fun, and it is the _only_
>beginning that can result in a good change.
In order to deal properly with this "shame of blame", I have adopted the
approach of analogy to try to get people to recognize the "disempowering"
futility of blaming. I use the weather as an example.
I will suggest that people consider what they do and how they feel when
the weather is not what they expect. Do they waste any energy "blaming"
and worrying about it. If they do, I suggest they seek professional help.
If they realize what I am getting at, then we have a discussion about how
THEY react by changing their plans, being flexible, making alternative
arrangements (e.g. a picnic "rain date") and carry on with their lives
making the best of what opportunities arise.
Then I go on to explain that this analogy really does apply to the "system"
they are in, much like the weather system. There are so many factors that
influence what they are seeing, it is a futile waste of energy to try and
blame anyone for the impact on them. The absolutely most productive use of
their time is to 1) make the best with what is given to them to work with,
and, when the opprtunity is right, 2) to highlight what could be better that
is NOT within their control and to offer to help with it.
The other piece of advice is to try to think from the other person's
perspective. This will give them new empathy for the differing priorities
that management must take. Sometimes it means asking why rather than taking
the approach that management MUST know. Often Management do not know the
answers (or even the questions!) but this process breeds cooperation and
teamwork between any layer and any adjacent layer.
A key aspect of life in the nineties is that everyone is informed about so
much that they cannot influence, it can be frustrating. I share the
philosophy I have adopted:
"I never WORRY about anything that money can fix."
This does not mean that I don't take action. I just get on with it. What
are the best future actions? We can learn from mistakes but must not DWELL
on them! (no shooting of the wounded...)
"I fix what I can and let others do the best job THEY can."
Most people are performing as good as they can given their knowledge,
training and resources, and personal priorities. I will do what I can but
also let others do whatever THEY can, and accept it. While I may be able to
help them improve, I might not too.
FWIW - Cheers....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/>