Dear Organlearners,
John Zavacki <jzavacki@greenapple.com> writes in reply to my question:
> >Can we and may we manipulate other people?
>
> In the positive sense of reaching the common goal within a system,
> manipulation and teaching are cognate.
John, thank you for your balanced reply. The positive, negative and
neutral character of manipulation reminds me very much of the flipping of
a coin. It is easy to get head or tail, but very difficult to let the flip
result in a balance of the coin on its neutral side.
John, I agree with you because you have used the qualifying phrase
"reaching the common goal". But as soon as either the goal cannot be
reached or the goal is not common anymore, I cannot accept or defend the
manipulation in teaching any more.
> If we are of a political or self-serving nature, manipulation and
> selfishness are cognate.
Yes, any opportunist's manipulation is devilish.
> In the common roles of management, we are constantly tasked with
> manipulation of other people. In this sense, manipulation is cognate with
> both strategy and tactic, we work with the person to draw a course of
> development for the good of the organization and try to keep them on that
> course regardless of the "urgencies" within the system.
In the way you have expressed it, it seems that I have to disagree with
you. The "good of the organisation" does not count more than the "good of
each member". In other words, the "good of the organisation" cannot be
used to deny the "good of some members" or condone any wrong doing to it.
Why? The "good of the organisation" can only emerge from the "good of all
its members". If the "good of some members" have been neglected, then
whatever emerges, it cannot be the "good of the organisation" because it
is merely the "good of a faction of the organisation".
Since the "good of the organisation" is an emergent event, it means that
the "good of all its members" will not necessarily ensure this complex
emergence. Seven patterns are essential to ensure the emergence. It is in
terms of these very patterns that (to use your words) " we work with the
person to draw a course of development and try to keep them on that
course".
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>