The splitting (de-wholing) of human activities LO29487

From: systhinc Zavacki (systhinc@msn.com)
Date: 11/12/02


Replying to LO29458 --

One of the issues I see here is not the splitting of human activities, but
the combination of them. As we become more and more cross-functional in
the operations of our daily grind, leaders can become less managers and
more coaches and mentors. On the surface, this is what we want, wise old
man archetypes to cope with the jesters and the Lost Boys and the like.

The problem comes in when the leader absolutely relegates management to
counts of parts and dollars and forgets that conflict can be creative, but
that consensus is not the same as unanimity and that decisions must
sometimes (because of confidential information, context, history) be
unilateral. If anyone else sees this, I'd like to continue dialogue.

John Zavacki
systhinc@msn.com

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up
where I intended to be."
-Douglas Adams

>I have changed the topic into a more general form because i think we have a
>serious problem to consider here. I have drawn attention to the splitting
>of learning and now you have also mentioned the de-wholing ( ;-) of
>managing.
>
>This splitting of something into more units than what it should be is known
>a long time in the exotic plant or animal trade. It happens whenever there
>there are buyers for them. A sought after species will be splitted in many
>"different species" based on the minutest differences, differences which
>would otherwise have played no role in distinguishing different species.
>What then happens is that people buy name-tags rather the plants or animals
>which they ought to have cared for. They look initially at the "different
>species" having different name-tags and wonder for hours what the
>difference is about. Later on they just accept that they will not learn the
>differences. They seldom see the plant or animal behind the name-tag
>needing their attention. Obviously, the more different name-tags for sale,
>the more the turnover for the splitters.
>Organizations --
[... snip by your host...]

-- 

"systhinc Zavacki" <systhinc@msn.com>

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