That said, I’ve often reflected on the ‘fear’ that goes along with a mindset like that. I watch her extreme moments of frustration when others take control from her (extreme in the sense that she will often rip her clothes). Having noticed this, when I talk to her in those moments (which are not frequent), I try to be sensitive to where her mind is and how she’s viewing the situation. It’s tremendously helpful as a perspective to understand the behaviors of others when they seem resistant.

But again, the focus here is that when I tried to consider how she (with no bad behaviors like smoking/drinking, save for a weight problem) could have aged so much more radically than I, my first suspicions were with the ‘control’ issues. Come to think of it, I think that I really started to age a bit more when I began to realize that what I thought I controlled, I really didn’t : ) Now I’m just trying to come to peace with it all.

I look forward to getting to know you guys better
Rob

When our work surfaces the ‘unspokens’ in organisations it is always with the intention of supporting a client shift in some small way from the old mechanical, human-consuming model of business to a more enlightened, engaging and spiritually nurturing one.

Great to see we’re not alone in that intention. You’re also right that this transformation (whether forced by external factors or courageously chosen) is painful. But as Eckhart Tolle says of humanity’s spiritual evolution: “we are in a time when things are getting worse at the same time as they are getting better”

I am not certain that the machine metaphor is the most accurate description of the current management paradigm. Rather, I think that the most precise metaphoris that of an organism, i.e. an entity with a brain and a lot of bodyfunctions each serving a specific need. We have a management layer, that defines a purpose for the organisation, and then layers of all the people doing the actual work (a machine does not have a purpose – it just serves a function).

This leads to ignorance of the fact, that all parts of the enterprise (me, you, departments, divisions) all have their own purposes. The purpose of the individual is sacrificed at the expense of the purpose of the organisation.

Another problem is, that the organism metaphor – with its brain and its functions – leads to a separation of decision making from the actual work being done. This creates an arms length distance between the decision makers and the ones having to live with the decisions.

The correct metaphor for the organisation, would be that of an eco-system – or perhaps a system of systems.

Bring it on! (that being the new 2.0 org)