I will speak for some men.
In my surroundings, in New Hampshire, in New England, compassion is
perhaps hidden more than among other men in other geographies and
cultures. Organizationally, the compassion may be an implicit undercurrent
which manifests itself in humaneness, empathy, warmth, celebration, Love.
But such manifestations in my organization are not the norm.
It's not that compassion and sense of beauty are irrational by nature; but
an large manufacturing organization seems, appears to drive toward
"rational," fact-based behavior. That's good. Customers have a decent
chance of being satisfied or delighted. I think there is a price we men
pay, though.
The ostensibly rational side of the organization (like the rational side
of this list?) weakens demonstrable compassion; beauty remains distant and
featureless.
Some writers to this list wrote long ago about the soul of an
organization. I am like a moth toward the candle flame when I read about
such things. It's the bridge between the fact of organization existence
(it's social, cultural, entrepreneurial meaning) and our humanity which I
find hard to successfully mix.
I can glibly refer to team experiences, ropes courses, retreats,
organizational T'ai Ch'i, as enthralling experiences. But here in the Fall
foothills of the White Mountains, touching the heart is made more
difficult for some reason. The granite around us is humbled so slowly.
Comfort comes in the fact that these, too, were once huge mountains.
The practitioner of organizational development is faced with a difficult
mix at tasks at best. She or he should never shy away from the task.
Best regards,
-- Barry Mallis bmallis@markem.comLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>