Business Overwhelms LO13121

Ian Saunders (tpians@cix.compulink.co.uk)
Sat, 5 Apr 97 12:42 BST-1

Replying to LO13072 --

Margaret,

I enjoyed this message, reading it many days after it was posted. Reading
it late because I had been away (in the USA, San Francisco as it happens)
and then had a computer failure.

A story. Whilst on an weekend break at Victoria Falls, whilst doing some
work in Zimbabwe, I happened to spend some time with an American couple
who were aid workers in Kenya. We discussed time in the context of how
differently many african cultures view time. (Like your friend things are
slower..) They commented that with the advent of the digital watch
American people tended to view time in 30 sec chunks. THis is shorter than
an analogue watch when it was 5 minutes. In Africa they were finding that
many of their clients (if this is the right term) viewed time in days or
half days. What they found was that many aid workers found it very
difficult to adjust to the idea that meeting tomorrow morning mean
sometime between sun-up and noon!!

I believe it is important that we indulge ourselves sometimes, take time
for ourselves, especially with other people. I love to play golf with
friends where this is the only time that I see them. It is a break from
other things. An indulgence.

In relation to why do people lose their discipline about working
effectively when the stimulus is removed. In my view it is about avoiding
doing things differently. THat takes more effort, control and commitment
and often we don't have it without adequate support which is often
missing.

Best wishes

Ian Saunders
Transition Partnerships - Harnessing change for business advantage
tpians@cix.compulink.co.uk

-- 

tpians@cix.compulink.co.uk (Ian Saunders)

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>