I've always enjoyed Frankl's work. Peter raised several questions that I
think are important:
> Is a learning organization a meaningful organization? What do L.O.'s
> think? Have we have lost sight of WHY we are trying to create these
> organizations? Doesn't it come down to wanting to make our organizations,
> and the world, a better place to live? Frankl would say - quoting
> Nietzsche: "He who has a WHY to live for can bear with almost any HOW."
>
> Should we be advocating "meaningful" organizations?
Unfortunately, for far too many people, "meaning" rests with the market
mentality that's evolved.
We've touched on similar conversations several times over the the past
couple of years. I don't know if organizations can be meaningful or not.
I do know that when our work is meaningful to us, we have more passion
and energy in our lives. We live more fully, and the potential for
growth shows more strongly.
We must not, though, attempt to create meaning for others. This has been
a failing I've seen with the whole Excellence ethic, where managers and
workers assume an heroic stance and "meaning" is attributed based on
revenue increases.
I've made my position known to the list many times before in terms of
this and the importance of an organization's creating conditions where
people can find meaningful work. Learning is, afterall, a way of
meaning-making. Since the dissolving of a predominately agrarian way of
life (some of this came up in the Guild thread), work has been seen less
as an honorable calling and way to contribute to one's community, and
more as a way to develop a lifestyle -- to consume and help others to
consume. The emphasis within industrialized work has helped to cultivate
this meaning of work.
I know a lot of people on this list, judging from other conversations,
believe in the importance of meaningful work. To what extent is this
simply a matter of individual attitude and belief and values, and to what
extent do our work environments serve to influence this? Why is meaning
important in work, and what does this have to do with how work is
organized and conducted?
I'm anxious to see how others respond to these questions. In my neck of
the woods, such questions are frequently discounted as being
"impractical" and having nothing to do with the concrete realities of
everyday worklife. yet I see them as immensely practical, and having
everything to do with the larger purpose of work and of work
organizations.
--Terri A Deems, PhD DAI/WorkLife Design tadeems@aol.com
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>