"LO and Quality without TRUST?"
Dr. Stephen R. Covey discusses some basic ideas in his books and tapes:
People in most organizations derive their security from the policies,
procedures, hierarchy, chain-of-command, whatever you may call it; all of
these mechanisms are based upon lack of trust (some may say they are for
organization, but the idea of organization is fundamentally based on the
assumption that most people will not do what is right for an organization
unless directed to do so).
Most quality efforts seem directed at these mechanisms and not the
underlying foundations of trust and relationship; Senge does focus on
personal development, developing people, and focusing on what is
ultimately important. But without trusting relationships, many efforts
are frustrated and people drift back into the culture of mistrust,
competition, etc.
It seems to me the tough part will be developing this culture of trust and
relationship, where everyone is considered important, and there is no
dichotomy of roles and compensation. Incentive is important to human
effort; socialism has taugh us that much.
What might it take; a more egalitarian workplace where there is no
management/worker schism, or a more entrepreneurial system where most of
us will be our own business ?
Trust implies both character and competence; if either is lacking, the
relationship suffers. We all need to keep up with skills in today's
marketplace. Are we headed for a world where the organization as we know
it will disappear, to be replaced by mostly freelancers? The
freely-trusting organization seems like such an impossible concept, given
the current culture. Does anyone have any experience, thoughts ?
Tom Clifford
Lansing, Michigan
--"Tom J. Clifford" <CLIFFOTJ@state.mi.us>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>