Replying to LO30497 --
Malcolm,
I agree with your comments on emergent grassroots change. A few months ago
I came across an article that examined emergence of organizational change.
What was very interesting was the belief in planned change even when the
evidence indicated success originated naturally at the grassroots through
cultural emergence. Essentially, the organizational members didn't see
emergence because it was outside their paradigm for organizational change.
What they saw was interpreted as being driven by top management as this fit
their paradigm for organizational change. This expectation of top
management power to drive change flies in the face of all the evidence
indicating the need for the organization to embrace the vision for change
for it to occur. Because emergent change occurs slowly within the culture,
those who are involved really don't see it happening because they are too
involved in living the culture. This brings up the real power of Shared
Vision. Again, I am not talking about a top management or planning
department vision, but one consistent with organizational learning,
developed across the entire organization. Successful planned change is only
successful to the extent that it is able to INFLUENCE the organization's
shared vision. The key here is influencing and not attempting to control.
Similarly, it can be said that empowerment will not occur without acceptance
of it. Yet, the dominate paradigm involves top-down delegation for
empowerment without considering how empowered an individual may already be.
Without testing boundaries of empowerment the individual is constrained by
perceptions that are likely to be very limiting. In both organizational
change and individual empowerment, the limitations are self-imposed through
existing paradigms that are rarely challenged by those who have positional
power or those who are unaware of their personal powers.
Ross
>From: Malcolm Burson [mailto:mburson@gwi.net]
< snip >
>CEOs neither control nor are required to endorse change, except at the most
>formal level. Increasingly, I'm coming to trust the notion that like all
>living systems, organizations are, and have within them a range of, emergent
>phenomena. So find where change and learning are happening, and do whatever
>you're able to support the vibrant exchange of information and knowledge in
>a web of relationships.
>Frankly, I refuse to bow down to the negativity expressed in phrases like
>Alan's "paranoid senior managers" and "obsequious sycophants."
[..snip by your host..]
--"Wirth, Ross" <RWIRTH@citgo.com>
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