Replying to LO31047 --
Thanks for the insights, Art. I've been working on much of the same
model integration myself. I have a chance now to put it all into
perspective. I am leaving soon for a two year assignment to
"integrate" a recent acquisition into our company. HQ of the new
company is in Germany and I've had some success in bringing together
North Americans and Europeans in our company to understand the
variables surrounding the Not Invented Here syndrome and to turn
cross-cultural stubborness into synergies. In most cases, these were
companies which grew up under the command and control model, the
hierarchy system.
In this case, the challenge is more interesting. There is a natural,
ubiquitous attitude of continuous improvement. There is little regard
for the control piece of systems, things are somewhat chaotic in terms
of organization (many "legal entities" which build artificial
boundaries around like functions and prevent sharing) but the right
language and behavior from me and my team should be able to break down
the walls so that all cells communicate and forge a system of thinking
(I still like Deming's "System of Profound Knowledge", which I feel
leads to V) and acting.
This company has technological genius and translates it into profits
using the market system, the legal entity makeup creates the clans as
well as the hierarch, the network system has some tunnels in it which
can be used to fuse the clans into a true intelligent organization.
I'll keep you all posted on my progress. It's a pretty good
opportunity to test what I've been thinking about for most of my
life!!
John
john zavacki
systhinc@msn.com
If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you
expect to find it?
-from a Zen Teaching
>From: "Art Kleiner" <art@well.com>
> Actually, Doug, I've been ruminating about this ever since you wrote
> about it in the original Fieldbook.
>
> I have now come to think that there are at least four necessary
> dimensions for understanding how an organization works -- operating in
> relationship to each other in a manner akin to the way the human
> circulatory system, skeleton, muscles and nervous systems operate
> (perhaps)...
--"John Zavacki" <systhinc@msn.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.