At 12:36 PM 5/5/97 GMT+2, you wrote:
>
>Ben Compton wrote on 24 Apr in LO13384
>
>> I could expound on each one of these, but that's not the point. The bottom
>> line is that the people I Mentor for don't care about learning. They
>> simply want me, as a mentor, to feed them the answers to every question.
>> They have no desire to dig for an answer. I don't know if it's that
>> they're stupid and/or lazy, but I do know that when I lead them in a
>> direction that requires learning they get pissed off, send a nasty message
>> to their manager, who then stops by my office and craps all over me.
>
>and
>
>> From my conversations with these eight people it seems that they're just
>> working 8 - 5 so they can get drunk on the weekend, or spend their weekend
>> golfing. They're not interested in building a meaningful career, they
>> don't care whether they develop new skills. It leaves me bewildered. I
>> don't care if they learn what I want them to learn; all I care about is
>> that they learn to do their job better.
Ben and others following this thread,
Ben, your comments have generated some interesting conversation on this
list. I've noticed that only two of the posts (by my count, forgive me if
I missed some) deal with the issue of accountability. One of those posts
was mine and by far, probably the most harsh. It's not that I don't
believe in the need to see things from another's point of view and to
ENGAGE other's in learning (not command, which cannot be done), but what
seems to be missing for me in all of this discussion is accountablity.
Most companies, governments, etc. today require people to build new skills
just to survive in a competitive world. As an individual, it's the best
way I know of to maintain my employment. IMHO, TQM movements started to
errode the accountability of individuals to managers, despite all the
many, powerful good things that have come about. I am not advocating the
old command and control structure, but how does accountability fit in with
learning and what is management's role? (If you read some frustration in
this, you are hearing it correctly and perhaps, Ben, that is some of your
frustration as well). Comments anyone?
Debbie
-- Debbie Broome e-mail: debbieb@linux.plano.gov Assistant City Manager phone: 972-461-7465 City of Plano Texas fax: 972-423-9587 P.O. Box 860358 Plano, TX 75086-0358Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>