Ben Compton writes:
"First, that the pursuite of emotional maturity is often painful but
always possible. Emotional maturity grows out of the practice of personal
mastery. One's background, no matter how dysfunctional, does not have to
determine their future. We're the product of our choices, not a product of
our environment."
Ben, this is very important. We can be victims and live in fear, or we
can accept out responsibility, make choices available to us and live with
honesty and integrity. It is extremely had to do what you have done. I
imagine the growth you have experienced as a result is beyond your
expectations.
Then you write:
"Second, I wanted to draw out the similarities between abuse in families
and abuse in organizations. The anger I felt at how I was treated by some
of my managers at Novell was no less poignant than the anger I felt
towards my parents for how they treated me. If we want to create lasting
and ever-growing organizations we need to take hard, practical steps
toward removing all forms of abuse from our management practices."
This is just as critical. We view our world through the experiences we
have had. Everyone has these experiences in terms of repetitions of
family experiences in the workplace. We frequently end up repeating some
of the very behaviors that we detest because it is so hard to be aware of
them due to the pain as referred to in the first paragraph.
I want to congratulate you on your courage in sharing your vulnerability
and giving us all "a peek under the tent." Thanks!
David C. Rupley, Jr.
spirit1@azstarnet.com
Spirited Growth
7400 N Oracle Road, Suite 100A
Tucson, AZ 85704
520-742-9325
--"David C. Rupley, Jr." <spirit1@azstarnet.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>