Traditional Wisdom LO9973

JC Howell (orgpsych@csra.net)
Sat, 14 Sep 1996 17:59:30 +0000

Replying to LO9830 --

In LO9830 Ivan Blanco wrote:

> What is very
> interesting with some organizations, and the Fire Department is not an
> exception, is employee turnover. Retirement, leaving for better jobs,
> etc. have a great effect in learning, I think. As the strongest opponents
> of the new methods started to leave and others changes atarted to take
> effect (rewarding education, in conbination with guts - being gutsy and
> smart :-) ), then the new equipment and methods were accepted with a lot
> less resistance.

I was reminded of something a friend told me a while back:

"There's nothing wrong with this community that a few funerals won't fix."

This is a pretty morbid statement but it has been proven true in more than
one comunity struggling to enter the 20th century (and just as we are
about to change it to the 21st century, too).

It is unfortunate that such drastic developments are sometimes necessary
in order to effect needed change. The political powers-that-are can
certainly stand in the way sometimes.

[Host's Note: There's a Thomas Kuhn quote that expresses the same idea.
That the acceptance of a new, revolutionary scientific line usually occurs
when they overly rigid holders of the previous line die off. Sorry I
don't have the exact quote. ...Rick]

--

Clyde Howell orgpsych@csra.net

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