What about Dilbert? LO10781

Michael Erickson (sysengr@atc.boeing.com)
Wed, 30 Oct 1996 08:43:59 -0800 (PST)

Replying to LO10749 --

Hello Ben, and all,

I like Ben's post about changing the corporation from the inside. In that
past couple of weeks I've been facing the realization that my own role as
a corporate cartoonist is really about change from the inside.

I've had the opportunity during the last six years to work with business
and scientists (a strange bunch of people), I've attempted to function in
the typical corporate clerical/graphics manufacturers position, finding it
to be a desolate and mind numbing place, and I've tried working in design
teams and as an analyst and business process modeler (muddler when I tried
it), and there was a lot of motion, but little actual change when one
steps back and looks at it. My "mad magazine" style art showed the
problems, the "wizard of oz" art showed pie in the sky potentials...

More of the same olde stuff.

I've concluded that the one real thing I do well is function as a guerilla
educator. We have our formal communication routes, methods and
ideologies, but they break down towards the shop floor levels of the
company, and the people actually doing the work that keeps my company
going don't get the straight story, or anything to build their own story
on.

Upon realizing this, I've found I'm having to "re-invent myself" yet once
again so I can approach this type of art from well beyond the normal
"cartoonists" perspective. I have to validate how people feel without
encouraging them to engage in "victem thinking". I have to turn them on
to "what's possible" without inviting them into the "pie in the sky",
psychodelic, fantasy future we all know can't happen, and won't happen.
(the term "get real" has got a lot more real to me recently). I have to
tell the story, so it account's for everyone (so they can see where they
fit) so it is clear, positive, and get's everyone interested in making it
real.

Having read the magazine "fast company" and their very overt revolutionary
manifesto, I recognize that I'm a full participant (and guerilla fighter)
in the revolution (a happy accident or a very strange attractor? I
dunno..) so this business of changing the corporation from the inside is
very real, possible and practical and I'm doing it. Others need to do it
too! (A call to arms here folks)

In early 1995 I drew a cartoon designed to encourage the Boeing company
workforce not to panic into giving up what they do best-in terms of a set
of manufacturing advancements made by the airbus consortium-and give
airbus the lead in our little global competition. I'd heard about
cartoons hanging in airbus factories of one of their airplanes swooping
out of the sky like a shark and biting the tail off a rather dumpy and
senile Boeing 737. Airbus is known for making some pretty violent
statements toward us like Nikita Krustchav (of the olde USSR) used to make
like "We Will Bury You!" so a lot of us feel very keenly the hot breath on
the backs of our necks.

My cartoon showed our sleek and enthusiastic 737 flying off into the sky
with a set of dentures hanging on it's horizontal stabilizer - out of the
airbus airplanes mouth. We were going to fly away with their teeth. The
caption said, "not as palatable as you thought??)

This cartoon made it all the way to toulose france (airbus hq) and I know
at least 10,000 copies circulated around Boeing. The drawing made a
difference. We didn't hear nearly as much worry about airbus after that
cartoon went around. People realized that they held considerable power in
their hands-wherever they were in the company, so they took courage, got
their act together, and the rest is history.

(NOTE: I'd post the cartoon here, but lack (temporarily) permission to do
so, since Boeing owns most of my work... We need to be sensitive to the
needs of our benifactors-our corporations-while seeking to change them, we
need to avoid pointing out weaknesses in public, at least until there is
enough strenth to handle this sort of dialogue.)

As for me, well Boeing had been doing serious downsizing, for several
years, I had a position that I was a little under qualified for so the
layoffs came my way. I held a WARN notice, having maybe 60 days "to live"
as it were so I figured, why not make the drawing-even though established
corporate thinking discouraged it (what will they do, fire me?) and if I
do leave Boeing, I will leave having done something that mattered.

The drawing saved my job. The drawing took the edge off some of the panic
floating around about Airbus's advancements. The cartoon helped people
realize they had power to do something that mattered.

The point of this is-Here was an example of guerilla education at it's
best (and I pulled it off by accident-more interested in leaving Boeing on
a positive note than pushing some personal agenda). Now of course I'm
trying to purposefully accomplish the same thing, and it's not so easy,
but I'm gaining on it.

The drama of real life, the emotions we all feel, the conflicts we all
struggle with, This is all the real stuff that makes business live and
breath. It ain't flowcharts and finance reports. We need them too, but
they are of second importance. It's about people, it's always been about
people. We have a cultural inheritence of a lot of negative stuff, most
of which simply isn't true - that we've built our organizations around.
These things-like the "master - slave" model for heirarchic organization,
impedes growth, flexibility and profitability. Short term thinking,
rather than system thinking is the same, and there is a lot more.

I feel like I have to be the concience of the company, reminding people
with my silly cartoons just what we're here for and why we keep injuring
each other. If those cartoons are done just right, people say, WOW, I
want a copy of that... and they hang it on their wall, or take it home,
and someone else sees it and says, WOW I want a copy.... and the story
gets spread around all by itself. (that's why I call it guerilla
education).

It's like-I have a power I only just barely know how to wield, but I must
learn or the revolution in my part of the universe just won't happen as
well as it needs too. (grandios thinking isn't it).

I keep telling people that "God gave us two sides to our brain for a
reason". The "right brain" - creative, expressive, intuitive,
artistic-stuff.... is the other half of what we need to fully engage in
thought. When our thinking is limited by one dominant trait (in the
business world it is the "rational-logical-procedural, mechanistic) then
we hobble ourselves and literally can't figure out why things don't work.

David Whyte (the poet) came to Boeing 4 or 5 weeks ago, and he told us "I
gave up biology, and turned to poetry because the technical language of
science was not precise enough to express what I wanted to say". He's
right. I once had a rather violent arguement across the internet with
someone I grew up with, who had a masters degree in physics. We were
discussing a subject we both hold common interest in, but we had opposing
viewpoints, his was the typical left brain approach, and I couldn't help
him see past it. He was so limited by his technical degree that he
literally could not get a fairly simple concept. Then when he found he
couldn't convince me with logic, he tried to bully me-using his advanced
degree as evidence that he was educated and I was ignorant and incapable
of figuring out the right answer. We haven't spoke since (sad), time has
shown that in truth, we were both right to a degree, and the violence of
that day was pointless. (Dialogue is so good... too bad I couldn't engage
my friend in it, we would both have learned something).

I think we need pictures, and music (not cheep jingles either). We need
poetry and drama, fire and ice (hey, we're talking about peoples lives
here). We need to engage the full mind in order to grow this next bit.

So I enjoyed Ben's post. I don't think the cyber cafe idea will fall flat
on it's face. I think this engagement of the arts together with the
rational is a thing that's time has come. If Ben doesn't start it-others
will (I am in my little arena).

Later folks. Sing a little louder...
Michael Erickson
sysengr@atc.boeing.com

-- 

Michael Erickson <sysengr@atc.boeing.com>

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