Replying to LO28651 --
We constantly project our personalities, our psyche, our ideas and
emotions, our mind on the world around us: we're a complex mental
feed-back system in dynamical equilibrium with the world around us: an
thought, an idea, a feeling gets projected and based on the response, new
thoughts pop-up. A personality is a complete character, a set of
consistently linked feelings and thoughts that we use like a role, we take
on like an actor in a situation. We shift personality fluently. Here at
house, i've a father personality, a spouse personality, a enterpreneur
personality and - speaking now - a LO-contributor personality. Can you see
me? With a client i have more characters, roles. To me, it seems perfectly
normal that the outward projection also has an inward component: as a
father i need fatherly physiological responses etc. Part of the role of
the subconscious is to deliver a platform of continuity, a stage on which
the different personalities perform, a stage that re-assures you: you are
you. It this becomes too difficult to maintain, it just switches of the
notion that there are different personality within you. Or something like
that.
So, on the SMEP (single minute exchange of personality) i'd say that an
organisation can change its personality - if it has one, if you can use
this metafore - only if it has been developed and is ready for use.
Because the development of a new personality ("The Organisation that likes
to say "we love you"") involves new roles and attitudes of the members of
the organisation. These members however were hired for a role in the
existing or previous character ("Just buy this stuff and shut up"). So
this will take time. Under pressure, threath, the survival mechanisms can
surface however.
On the second question: i think we're in need of a psychology of
organisations, a psychology that takes into account the psychology of
people in groups and teams. And one that answers the question: what is on
an organisations mind? What - if any - are the feedback processes. If the
physiology of an organisation is in the supporting structure and
processes: that too will take time to change.
Kind regards,
Jan Lelie
John Dicus wrote:
> A question for you. First -- how valid are our assumptions regarding how
> fast change can take place in an organization? We talk about revolution
> and evolution. We talk about how we have to go slow and give people time
> because "no one likes change except a wet baby."
>
> And second -- can an organization undergo a personality change and almost
> instantly have a new physiology? What would it mean for an organization
> to have a personality change and what would cause it? What is
> "physiology" in an organization? What would cause an organization to have
> multiple personalities? Would it have to be traumatic? Could there be a
> personality shift under "better" conditions -- like a change in mindset?
--With kind regards - met vriendelijke groeten,
Jan Lelie
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