Gradual approach can be confounded by inappropria incentives ... RE: [Ailist] Re: Applying leeches?

[Lionel Boxer]

For the gradual approach to work it is necessary for all the underlying incentives to be reviewed to ensure that these only align with the direction that the organisation hopes to gradually drift towards.  

If there is just one inappropriate incentive entrenched in the organisation's reward system then the joyful drifting will end up taking the organisation off the charts.  

In simple terms, many organisations pay people bonuses that reward individual performance without considering how that performance affects the organisational need.  So, you end up with islands of productivity in a dysfunctional whole.

Command and control becomes necessary when people realise that they have joyfully drifted into a devil's triangle region and they have no idea where they are, how they got there, or how to get to the point they need to be at (whether this is the start point or the objective).

Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - 0411267256
Associate of RMIT University - lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au
Graduate School of Business
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>>> "John Loty" <fairgo at ozemail.com.au> 18/04/2008 11:05:20 am >>>
Cherri, et al,

Wonderful development of this dialogue,

My pennyworth - 

Asking questions, exploring etc are challenging events that necessarily
leads to turbulence, doubts the unknown and the unfamiliar.

If an organisation's leadership is committed to this process and is willing
to embrace/tolerate - support a constructive journey through a period of
uncertainty (that is certain to happen!) then no worries about the outcome.

If the leadership are not prepared for the rough waters to come (where
command and control will not work - it will require "all hands on deck"
thinking collaboratively and for themselves -) then there may well be a
'change of mind' at the helm and the organisation may be the worse of!

Yes the gradual process is probably the best - if nature is any guide (trees
- especially those in the mountains - grow slowly but they live a long long
time).

The difficulty with the gradual approach is that it too can falter - dwindle
- and given our short-term thinking/ immediate results/ instant coffee
culture may well disappear - just like the Shakespearean - brief moment on
the stage..

The beauty of the AI approach (as I understand it) is that it generates a
collective enthusiasm (or collective consciousness if you like) within the
organisation that is difficult to put out! 

Thousands of years ago the ancients that wrote the I Ching observed that (my
summary) 'When people learn together they experience joy'.

Joy is one of the positive emotions that "broaden and build" our thought
/action repertoire (a la Barbara Fredrickson's research) and when people
feel good about themselves in this way they can do amazing things and the
organisation they are part of /working in/with will prosper.

Interesting thing is I just heard that leeches are being used in some
plastic surgery procedures!

John Loty
Appreciative Inquiry Advocate, Facilitator and Consultant
Director
Logistics Training International 
 
"What we focus on - grows."
 
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