Passion to Participate Here LO19615

Chau Nguyen (pchau@rhonin.mfg.sgi.com)
Fri, 23 Oct 1998 16:00:19 -0700

It's been quite a while since I last post to the list, and i have asked
myself the question "what went wrong?" many times. Finally, i have the
answer. "I've lost the passion to participate". OK, you may say, so
what? who cares? Why burden the list with your own baggage? Well here
is why. This list is a virtual learning organization, and in an
organization, every cell counts. I am an element of the group, hence my
thoughts and feeling. I also wonder if any other cells out there suffer
the same way?

I DO know why i lost the passion. I lost the passion because i feel that
the list has become ALL MIND AND NO SOUL. I don't feel the soul anymore.
There is so much knowledge, you can get a degree out of these posts. But
there isn't a sense of togetherness anymore, at least not to me.

Then i went on and think, this is a classic case of an organization
outgrown its own people. The list is getting too big. We all know that
physical space/structure alters behavior and feeling. Well, it does. I
used to feel connected to all posts, now i read a post like a journal or a
book.

I admire people' knowledge and experience, but that's about it. It is not
lively to me anymore. Before, when i read the posts, i feel like i am in
Las Vegas. Now i feel like i am in a museum. It's alive, but not lively.

So here is something to think about, a true learning organization is an
org that grows equally both in size and spirit. Most org, when it starts
to expand, it expands the size but ignores the spirit. As a result, you
have an imbalance structure for living org. I sincerely believe that my
feeling is not uncommon. I believe that many people feel the same way in
big corporation, especially those people who started with a company when
it was small, and stick around to watch it grows big. In the growing
process, somehow we lost the sense of original, the pride of membership,
the proud of being part of something special. Those are the kind of
feeling that creates breakthrough in performance.

I'm not sure why i write... maybe because i'm a very emotional person,
because i like to wear my feeling where everyone can see it? or simply
because i just wanted to find a way to get the attention of you all? or
maybe because it is late Friday afternoon, and I have been working long
hour the whole week and I need to be mad at something or someone? Or
maybe because I am mentally challenged but don't know it? What ever the
reason, here is the post. 

-- 


phuoc-chau nguyen
pchau@mfg.sgi.com
 


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