Fostering a Spirit of Innovation in Mature Industries LO14743

Bill Harris (billh@lsid.hp.com)
Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:03:01 -0800 (PDT)

Replying to LO14737 --

Joe DiVincenzo wrote:

> about people close to retirement. In our organizations there is a belief
> that anyone who's been around for x years or is 'old' is a dinasaur.

Just a conjecture:

Perhaps people nearing retirement seem to be waiting rather than
contributing, because the rest of the organization views them as people
with old notions who must be persuaded to adopt new ideas rather than
people with a valuable repository of experience who can share (a
bi-directional notion) it with newer people. That means those who are
newer/younger must recognize what is valuable that those near retirement
offer the organization and make that recognition clear.

That doesn't sound easy for either party (at least if it is not to be a
superficial expression).

Bill

-- 
Bill Harris                             Hewlett-Packard Co. 
R&D Engineering Processes               Lake Stevens Division 
domain: billh@lsid.hp.com               M/S 330
phone: (425) 335-2200                   8600 Soper Hill Road
fax: (425) 335-2828                     Everett, WA 98205-1298 

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>