Dear Gray,
Well, I have had one hell of a day, directly experiencing a head-on
collision between my boss' version of leadership and mine. I am bruised
but not beaten and on a learning scale of 1 to 10, this was a 10. So, as
a devoted lifelong learner, I suppose I should be very content, no? :-)
Anyway, I have a quick response to your question because it may be a day
or two before I can give you a more thoughtful and elaborate one. Yes, I
think those lessons can be transferred given all the constraints you cite
BUT (upper case BUT!), the trick for me is just WHAT lesson was
transferred. I am willing to bet that 9 times out of 10 (i.e., most of
the time), what people "learn" from a situation is not what the teacher
thought s/he was teaching. Outcomes are always modified by the learner's
individual experiences -- what s/he brings to the situation will
inevitably alter what s/he takes away. Kind of like that example where an
accident occurs at an intersection in full view of 5 eyewitnesses and they
all saw the same thing -- but didn't see the same thing, if you know what
I mean. That's why it's so important to share learning experiences, I
think, and especially the leadership kind because as far as I know, there
isn't any manual that covers every situation. It's a question of context
and then choices and everyone will define the context a little differently
and construct their choices a little differently. There's a lot more to
say but I'm not capable of it at this moment. Anyway, I have some
references on outdoor experiences and their value in leadership
development and would be happy to share if you are interested. To me,
leadership issues and the concepts of a learning organization are
inextricably linked. I'd like to keep talking about this if it is of
interest to the other members of the listserve. Thanks for writing.
Harriett.
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