Rol:
I dislike games of semantics, and so reread your post a few times before
replying. The crux to me, and where I believe us in agreement is the
following:
>As you imply, employees cannot change the system unless
>management makes that possible by creating the correct environment. So,
>that is the role management must play. However, if they do so, then
>employees can change the system. I see it happen.
I see it happen too, when and if management makes it possible. We may
differ in degree, or the permissible rate of change, attributable to the
employee but your posts indicate to me the necessary and seminal role of
management. That was the thrust of my post that I found wanting in yours.
Apologies if I missed it.
>Peasant revolts are not a good example. Management is a bit smarter than
>the royalty of the 18th century, and employees are a great deal smarter
>than peasants.
We part ways here. While speaking slightly in metaphor, I think that they
are wonderfully apt examples. Given the technologies of the day, the
knowledge needed to survive and prosper, each class knew what it needed to
exist, to fulfill its roles, just as we do today. What they didn't know in
their cosmology, they filled with magic and religion just as today we do
with science, or scientific materialism to be precise. Yes, paralleling
the ever escalating struggle of "armor versus anti-armor" each class has
held temporary advantage.
As for brighter, present management, I think that we depart here again.
Separating the mores of the day, the accepted harshness of the time, I do
not see a more ennobled management today. Better dressed, wider diet,
warmer, more tools and trinkets, yes.
And I see great wisdom from the past still ignored, Gregory III leaping to
mind. Gregory, a Byzantine Pope of the ninth century, applied three rules
to any papal edict brought before him: What Fairness Suggests. What the
Law Allows. What will Work. Marvelous rules which work today. When I enter
a client engagement and find things amiss, I invariably find that they've
fractured Rule Three for a least one significant stakeholder group and are
working hard on Rules One and Two. I use Gregory's Rules in virtually
every engagement.
I feel that I'm advantaged - but I could be hobbled in your view - by long
readings in Roman, Merovingian, and Renaissance history from which I draw
these conclusions. Lest we draw this thread astray, can we agree that the
role of management is seminal to the ability of the employee to articulate
themselves and their role in the enterprise?
Best regards, Gordon Housworth
Intellectual Capital Group
ghidra@modulor.com
Tel: 248-626-1310
http://www.modulor.com
--Gordon Housworth <ghidra@modulor.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>