Replying to LO30484 --
Dear Organlearners,
Leo Minnigh <minnigh@dds.nl> wrote:
>At, although this dialogue is important, could you realise that
>I do not like the subject? I like more a dialogue on love and
>care. How many angels do we still need before we know the
>alternatives of conflicts??
Greetings dear Leo,
I have quote only the last paragraph of your reply. There is so much else
which i want to respond to.
I cannot agree more with you. But the topic reminds me that according to
the Bible the first conflict began between the angels of heaven. The
reason was self-centred pride. How much is it not still today a main
reason for conflict?
Of the five disciplines of a LO (Learning Organisation) it is primarily PM
(Personal Mastery) which has to deal with self-centred pride. I have read
occassionaly how a person who had a long path of PM (continuous learning)
behind the back admit that it was the length of that path in front which
convinced the person that he/she had nothing to be proud about.
This brings me again to the angels. According to the Bible they are
messengers of God. There is not the slightest information that they can
and do learn. This make sense in the light of the above why some (a
third?) developed self-centered pride.
But let us do some Systems Thinking (another LO discipline) on
self-centered pride. I will focus on only one aspect. It is not only
individuals who can develop it, but also organisations, sections of
society and even nations. Consequently, conflict can result between
organisations, sections of society and even nations.
Once we move from conflict between individuals to organisational conflict,
leaders enter the picture. It is the task of leaders to prevent any
conflict. For example, it had been so in the culture of many Banthu
nations of southern Africa before colonialism. But colonialist leaders
destroyed this culture by imposing their own culture on them. When the
colonialists began to leave since the fifties of the 20th century,
conflicts began to grow exponentially in the abscence of own culture and
the abandoning of alien colonistic culture. War lords with self-centred
pride began to compete for rule within and among these nations.
What went wrong? I am not preaching here. Paul in 1 Timothy 2:1-7 says
that it is the responsibility of leaders to keep peace and tranquility so
that Christians should pray for all leaders to keep up with their
responsibility. Colonial leaders coming from their christianised cultures
thought they was responsible for peace and quiet. But priding themselves
in that their cultures were superior to African cultures, they used their
own culture of peace keeping to subdue the African nations rather than
letting African cultures of peace keep doing their work. The disaster of
doing so is now known to everyone.
Allow me to tell of a completely different case which happened today.
I was in consultation with a director of business A (some 60 workers)
which experiences conflict with another business B in the same field.
Business A tries to avoid conflict, but the competitor B is using conflict
to increase its market share. It is even worse. A is quality driven with a
spotless credibility on its care for its customers. A is already 30 years
in the whole field backed by solid research all the time. But competitor B
is selling a "treasure map" which is close to an unethical business
practice. A began to market a new sector of products in the field some
five years ago. About the same time B began to sell inferior imitations of
products in the same sector. B prides itself in having gained the biggest
share of the market. There are also competitors C, D, .... in the field.
But B tries to get A out of the way so to have a monopoly by taking over
C, D, ....
What can A do? My advice was to make closer contact (more fruitfulness)
with customers so that they can decide for themselves whether they want to
buy from A or B. Unfortunately, the products of A are complex since
providing for the different requirements of individuals (sureness and
otherness). Thus they have to take into account the functional illiteracy
of many potential customers in the complex information supplied with their
products. (First as teacher and then as lecturer i found functional
illiteracy to be the greatest obstacle for learners.) B just attract any
unwary customer with its dreamy visual graphics. B also pays its
distributors in advance to push its products. My advice to A was to alter
the information on their products such that it also connect to the
functional illiterate.
However, i cautioned A that B will keep on causing conflict since A is the
standard at which C, D, ... as well as some of their customers compare
themselves. B knows it and that is why B is bent on denigrating A. The
only way to resolve the conflict is to wait until B gets into big trouble
because of its almost unethical practices. Some or other of its products
will sooner or later do serious harm to its customers. Only then it is
time for A to step in and let the law do its work. There is no
prescriptive law at present. B will not survive this catastrophy of its
own making.
I also advised A that some Team Learning is required here. I had in mind
A's director of this special line of products, a strategic planner, a
marketing guru and yours truely, a jack of al trades. The focus should not
be on curtailing B's actions, but on making better effective contact with
potential customers. More well informed customers ought to see through B's
marketing tricks and avoid its products.
What do you Leo and fellow learners think A should do? I would very much
like to study your suggestions. I will also submit them to the team for
careful consideration. Please, do not let me down.
I did an analysis of the morning newspaper which i read daily. In today's
edition about 70% its news (on a volume basis rather than on numbers of
reports) has been on conflicts. Can you imagine what influence this has on
its readers? I checked the section on reader's comments. All letters,
seven of them, were on conflicts. How much more can any peace loving soul
endure? Which are the more important -- the angles or the devils? I know
of some people who stopped reading newspapers and watching TV because of
this very reason. But they are a drop in the bucket. How is it in your
country?
I think it is time to break the spell which conflicts have on humans. In the
far majority of cases conflict is used as a magic solution to solve a problem
in human relationships. Part of breaking the spell is the message:-
NO CONFLICT CAN EVER SOLVE ANY PROBLEM IN HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS.
This message will have to be illustrated by examples and explained. The
message will have to be continued with:-
CONFLICTS CAUSE HURT WHICH IS VERY DIFFICULT TO
REMOVE AND WHICH CAUSES NEW PROBLEMS.
This part of the message will also have to be illustrated by examples and
explained.
But more than messages are needed. What is needed is the knowledge to
solve problems in human relationships. This requires a knowledge on
solving problems in general. I still remember the lively dialogue we had
on this topic. (I think the heading was:- "What is a problem?") Perhaps it
is time to revive the topic with the focus somewhat on solving problems in
human relationships. I wonder which fellow learner will initiate the
topic:-
Solving problems in human relationships.
I am not going to initiate it. If no fellow learner will do it, then it is
not an important issue, despite my opinion that it is the main cause in
conflicts. I have a suspicion who will do it (should that person react
fast enough) and will send you in a private message the name. This means
that you cannot initiate the topic. I hope i am wrong because many of us
should be concerned so much about it as to initiate the topic.
Leo, thank your for bringing our attention to the positive and
constructive. It requires dedicated learning. Part of the spell of
conflicts is fixing the attention on the destructive and negative. It
usually requires self-centred pride resulting from a lack in learning. How
much can learning individuals and learning organisations do to break the
spell of conflicts?
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@postino.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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