On Fri, 19 Dec 1997 11:21:55 +0000 Fred Nickols commented
>I think you will find, Ben, that the heart of the matter with which you
>are grappling is the exercise of authority. As a former military man, I
>never cease to be amazed at how much more arbitrary is the exercise of
>authority in the private sector than ever I witnessed in my 20 years in
>the Navy. I've also pondered the matter and have long believed that the
>basic reason is that the military is a system governed by law (perhaps not
>unlike the "rules" you seek to establish), whereas corporate cultures have
>no such provisions.
In a separate post I suggested to Ben that he establish values in place of
rules. Fred's post triggered my memories of many years in the Navy and
the values found and followed during my tenure. While I worked for
commanders and while was one free debates about the course of action were
encouraged. Once a decision was made we expected everyone to support the
decision, fully. That is I always felt that I could argue with the
commanding officer to get my idea of a proper copurse of action adopted.
But once we agreed about what must be done we all were expected to do our
best to make it so.
These Navy communities are communities different from all of the business
and government communities I worked in since. We had a clear set of
objectives and values all of which were reinforced whenever they were
needed. The values of honesty, contribution and teamwork were paramount,
IMHO are paramount.
Again I urge Ben to seek values first, then rules may fill in some small
niches.
Aloha
Bill
--"William J. Hobler, Jr" <bhobler@worldnet.att.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>