Team Building LO15433

Richard C. Holloway (learnshops@thresholds.com)
Sun, 19 Oct 1997 23:34:04 -0700

Replying to LO15430 --

Benjamin B. Compton wrote:
> Simon,
-snip-

> In closing you quoted David Oglivy, who said "Look in all of the parks in
> your cities at all of the statues. You will find no statues of
> committees."
>
> I don't find the causal association: Because there are no statues of
> committees, certainly doesn't mean they haven't served a useful -- and at
> times critical -- role in history.

just to add to your thought, Ben--and Simon, I suspect you've received
enough feedback on this thought already. I'm responding, perhaps, more to
the quote attributed to David Oglivy, than the ideas with which you
originally began this thread. It seems that the word "committee" has
become the derogatory word to use when teams are being criticized.

Well, I have seen the gravestones of those soldiers killed in Europe
during the two great wars, and the concentration camp at Dachau. Perhaps
these are the statues to "committees."

I've walked the walls of Hadrian and Limes, and seen the ancient ruins of
Celtic, Roman and medieval fortress. perhaps these, too, are the statues
to "committees."

All of us have seen the handiwork of the multitudes of peoples who have
lived and died. Most of the time, those people who are memorialized in
statues are simply symbolic of the people who they led, coerced,
represented or symbolized.

One of the more compelling recent memorials I've seen is the one in San
Juan, Puerto Rico that commemorates the masses of indigenous peoples in
the western hemisphere who were massacred and/or enslaved by Europeans. It
stands in the same square that honors the 500th anniversary of Cristobal
Colon's (Columbus) arrival. The man and his consequences. There's an
honest way to construct a statue.

regards,

Doc

-- 
Richard C. "Doc" Holloway Visit me at <http://www.thresholds.com/>
Or e-mail me at <mailto:learnshops@thresholds.com>

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