My topic has to do with change in a highly technical, process controlled
organization.
My degree in Chemical Engineering, and MA in Physics and MA in Human
Resource Management, could not have prepared me for the complexity of a
major semi-conductor manufacturer I visited with this week, because I
called the facility manager, whom I had done a project for 3 years ago,
and said: "john, tell me your problems, I'll visit with you for a day and
help you fix it".
To see the white suited spacemen, to watch the robots dipping into
stripping baths, and to look as far as the eye could see, on 2 floors, in
both directions, chock full of costly, complex equipment was sobering and
staggering.
The problem I was presented was "simplifying paperwork". I have prepared a
draft survey dealing with some of the issues they spoke to me.
Now, the idea of change, excitement, learning, entropy, are very wonderful
to contemplate and/but can someone suggest a point of view I could adopt
of how to observe such concrete, practical, in your face real world stuff,
and coordinate it with the contemplation and integration of entropy,
excitement, learning in a 200 person department, which I get to visit
maybe not at all: perhaps only the managers?
I have studied the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, particularly the section on
systems thinking, which you could expect from a past engineer. I fear I am
leaving out the "people stuff", or submerging my sense of that deep
process, but I'm afraid to talk about vision, team learning, mental
models, personal mastery, when faced with the bombardment of intricate
minutia to the max.
Rex Paris
mpicg@inetworld.net
San Diego, CA
Impact Consulting Group: www.consultingforce.com/icg
--rpbrb <mpicg@inetworld.net>
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