Replying to LO28661 --
Alan Cotterell sounds like he has been burned a time or two. Much of the
literature I've seen describes using program "fixes" such as some
consultancies provide to further ligitimize their need for control (or
more truthfully, the illusion of it).
In their book, "The Addictive Organization", Anne Wilson Schaef and Diane
Fassel briefly outline David Bohm's vision of a system as a hologram,
which, if you remove a piece of it, it still contains all the information
of the whole.
They go on to discuss their role as consultants, and that they are often
asked to be objective outsiders and set up structures that will take care
of their client's problems. Since problems are holographic, i.e., in the
people as well as the system, the attempt to rely on the perfect structure
or system will never work, even in a minimal fashion. They say that this
involves an underlying worldview of the illusion of control, that
pre-supposes that somehow we can make anything work out the way we want,
and that this thinking process causes us to objectify everything, even
ourselves.
They go on in the book to describe this obsession with control as one part
of the process of addiction, which also includes perfection, denial,
working from a scarcity model, confusion, self-centeredness, dishonesty,
and frozen feelings. These all seem to be more or less characteristic of
the stereotypical modern corporation (and also many non-profits).
Addiction is rampant in our society, according to the authors; our schools
teach and reinforce it, as do our churches.
It seems to be Training and Consultancy can make a number of inroads to
help with this, but like many addicts, a company may have to hit
rock-bottom before it realizes the need to change what it fundamentally
believes, and places priority on. The problem is, like addicts and their
families and friends, many get hurt before the realization takes hold.
Tom Clifford
--"Thomas Clifford" <tclifford@mhc.net>
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