Thanks for a good story. The "story" idea has come up in a few mailing
lists I've been reading lately, and seems to be a powerful meme (so what
story/stories is your organization telling?). Here's one that came to me
in a half-dream, and I've been kneading and prodding it for a while. With
your indulgence, I'll take another cut in public:
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There were three people traveling on a path, looking for the right place
to be at home. At one point, they came into a sheltered glade, where the
light played through the foliage and over the pools and rocks of a little
stream. One of them said, "Yes! This is the place for me to be at home."
The other two agreed that it was a nice place indeed, but they decided to
go on after wishing the first one well.
Some time later, the two came out on a high ridge overlooking the ocean.
It was near sunset, and the sky, sea, and clouds created a classic picture
of grandeur and beauty. One of them said, "Yes! This is my place." The
other, after resting and enjoying the sunset, wished his companion
farewell and continued on.
He continued to follow the path, passing through many places. He groped
through thick fogs, persisted across deserts, climbed and descended what
seemed endless ridges and valleys, battled through thick brush where the
path almost disappeared, and also found many places to rest and heal the
body and soul.
One day, he paused to chat with a stranger, and in response to the
stranger's questioning, told him of his journey and his erstwhile
companions, long left behind. "So then you haven't found your place
yet?", asked the stranger. He looked back at the way he'd come, then
forward to where the path wound on as far as he could see. "Oh, yes,", he
said. "I've been there for some time now."
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Questions and answers left as an exercise for the reader...
Don Dwiggins "It fills my head with ideas,
SEI Information Technology but I don't quite know what they are!"
dwig@earthlink.net -- Alice, after hearing Jabberwocky
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>