To Malcolm Burson -- heartfelt thanks! Wow, wouldn't it be nice if more
of us took the time to summarize and process others' contributions?! This
is kinda, sorta like being a learning organization, huh?
You've inspired me to (1) do the same for other threads, and (2) to add my
two cents.
My two cents:
When I worked at Wilson Learning Corp. we were quite successful getting
through to the "content" people (of which, by the way, I am one) with the
following model.
We described what goes on when people come together for the first time in
terms of two kinds of "tension":
1. Task tension
2. Relationship tension
We suggested that every person (and group) could tolerate only a certain
total of both kinds of tension at any time without breaking down (too much
tension) or becoming moribund (too little.) It was a kind of
"conservation of tension" model, where the two kinds of tension maintained
a constant sum.
Then we suggested that what was desired was to maximize task tension --
the productive tension that helped us accomplish our goals. However,
initially, it was difficult to raise task tension because the unproductive
relationship tension was too high.
We can't draw graphs here, but imagine a graph with two curves on it where
the vertical axis is "amount of tension" and the horizontal axis is time.
One curve, representing relationship tension, starts high (at maximum) and
gradually sweeps lower until it bottoms out at minimum. The other, task
tension, curve is a mirror image of the first, beginning low and rising to
its asymptote at the maximum.
We justified the curves by suggesting that relationship tension is always
highest when people first meet -- because of lack of trust, no established
credibility, no established commonality of interests or desires, lack of
experience working together, fear of the unknown, etc.
Finally (although it is quicker when you can simply draw the curves) we
got to the point: that the first task for the group (or for two people
meeting for the first time) was to reduce relationship tension -- so that
we might then raise task tension and do what we came together to do.
This pseudo-scientific explanation seemed to make sense to everyone and
let us do some things focused on dealing with the causes of relationship
tension without making the extroverts impatient nor the introverts
fearful.
--"John Gunkler" <jgunkler@sprintmail.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>