Viv has just written about cause and effect thinking, partly inspired by Shawn's sketch I just blogged about.
I’ve been pondering the need to be seen to be DOING, the need to produce OUTPUTS or PRODUCTS and the dilemma of the intrinsic worth of simply BEING with others and having conversations.Thanks, Viv, I so agree and haven't quite managed to express it so directly. And, by the way, if we look at all this so-called DOING, a lot of it turns out be just "action theatre" anyway.This.. situation often arises when I talk about or facilitate open space meetings. “It was good to talk, to have some time to explore, to slow down, BUT what did we achieve?” I wonder why talking, exploring and slowing down are not generally seen as achievements in their own right?
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Comments (2)
Well put - it is based on the 'logic' of there being 'inputs and outputs' and not being able to see that where humans are concerned, just getting good input (i.e. level, honest and well intentioned) is both input and the output, it is why Open Space, and those of us who do our personal version of it, works. As EM Forster said 'Only Connect'.
June 6, 2008 11:24 Permalink for comment
No question this is a valid concern. We are in great danger of redefining ourselves as HUMAN DOINGS rather than HUMAN BEINGS.
Yet this is uniquely a workplace problem, and is perhaps one of the primary indicators of the inherent psychological conflicts that work creates and which contributes to a downward spiral in our own sense of well-being. I believe this in turn stimulates the great divide between our personal-lives and our work-lives, epitomised by the increasing demands for "work-life balance." Unfortunately such initiatives fail to address this specific issue, which is why levels of employee disengagement continue to increase.
We have to start looking at people as people and intercting on that basis, rather than persisting to look at one another as the embodiment of our job descriptions.
Bay
June 13, 2008 10:10 Permalink for comment