Richard Charles Holloway wrote:
> John...you shared a great story about patience. I "heard" another theme
> in your story, though...and thought I'd clarify that with you.
>
> I wondered if your friend asked "meaningful" questions, and was patient
> with the responder and response, because he genuinely wanted to hear what
> the person had to say?
This reminds me of the time, long ago, when my daughter had first learned
to read. She came in and announced proudly that she had just read a book.
I said, "Well, tell me about the story." She tossed me the book and said
"Here, you can just read it yourself."
Of course I didn't care about the content of the book. I cared about her
- what she thought about the story, how she understood it, what her
emotional responses were, how she expressed her thoughts about its
meaning.
On a very personal level, I was motivated by the "wonder of being human" -
I wanted to be a privileged witness to the thought processes of this
relatively new human. Upon analysis - of course I wasn't thinking this at
the time - I wanted to participate in the miracle of a relationship with
her characterized by what Martin Buber described as "thou".
In the context of adult relationships in the business world, when we are
creating or troubleshooting systems, we recognize that what humans think,
and even what they feel, is an important part of the system. I suspect
that we are all reading this list because we know that "Tell me about
working on this assembly line" is as important as "Show me the engineering
specifications for this assembly line." (I have an instinctive belief,
that I cannot prove, that to ask such questions in an exploitive way
instead of in a genuinely "caring" way, is to negate the long-term value
of asking the questions.)
If I might be a little presumptuous about John's story about the steel
mill, I'd guess they didn't care at the moment about how to make steel -
they cared about something more important: how the steel-makers perceived
they were making steel, and maybe even what the steelworkers felt about
the process. (John, please correct me if I'm wrong.)
This is one of the reasons that I, and I suspect so many others, have been
attracted to the LO "school of thought" - it recognizes the central role
in organizational success that is played by the thought, the emotions, and
the motivations of *all* the participants.
George Pinckney
pinckney@bellsouth.net
--George Pinckney <pinckney@bellsouth.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>