Mike said
> Do you think that "in transition" that someone will have to help people
> discover "why they work and what they need?" As you stated, these people
> have been conditioned to respond to external stimuli. What I have found
> is that most people haven't really undertaken the adventure into
> themselves and could not really answer the root need or predisposition
> they seek to satisfy through work.
>
> I haven't finished reading the book, but does Kohn indicate anything along
> these lines? I think sometimes we forget that people need time and "help"
> to recondition their beliefs and then do the internal work to discover
> what really moves them?
>
> mike
I indicated earlier that I am interested in what I call "indoctrination"
-- harmful learnings which are not accidental, and which are harmful
because they impair people's abilities to develop and realize their own
conceptions of their good. In my teaching in my 'varsity courses I have
spent a lot of time leading students to recognize such things in their own
lives. I haven't done much about dealing with them when they are found --
mostly students seems surprisingly ready to deal with them once they
recognize them as reversible learning, though I am sure that help would
make it even more effective.
My point is, though, that the process of identifying these things and
recognizing them in oneself is crucial to working out one's own good. It
is far too common for us to suppose that all we have to do, at bottom, is
find out what people want. They can build their goals on this. The
crucial question, though, is where do these wants come from, and did we
"choose" them for ourselves under fair conditions of choice? Are they
really "our" wants, or someone else's. Our social systems (capitalism,
culture, family) do an enormous amount in the *formation* of our wants.
We acquire these wants often before we can reason much about them, and/or
unwittingly, even when we can. So many threads on this list are rich with
possible examples -- common attitudes to work, to reward, to
collaboration, to making much of our lives.
How can we guess that a want we have might not be the best we could have?
What were the options when the wants were acquired by us, and how
reflective about them were we at the time? If the answers to this don't
look too good, then some exploration of other possibilities might be a
good idea -- to ensure that our wants come under some serious test. We can
open them up to choice again if we do this seriously.
My argument with student-teachers and other would-be educators is that
they need to do this for themselves before they take on the job of dealing
with other people. Though I have no experience with managers, or leaders
(in any particular way, though I imagine some of my students may become
them) my perception is that they need to do this first, before they can
expect to do much good leading or managing.
>From this I guess I think that Senge is too brief in his discussions of
personal vision. A very great deal needs to be done here (in my view) for
the whole program to work very well, because it has to depend so much on
that relationship between personal vision and organzational vision.
Graham
R. Graham Oliver (h) 07-856-3566
Education Studies, University of Waikato
Hamilton, New Zealand (w) 07-856-2859
E-mail: g.oliver@waikato.ac.nz
--"Graham" <goeduc@mailserv.waikato.ac.nz>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>