Here we go again... I'm about to head off to the shores of Lake Superior in Minnesota for three and one-half days of open space and reflection on "organization transformation".
When Harrison and others started this particular show in 1983, they understood (before anyone else) the world was in a condition that would push or pull organizations into or through a transformation, a leap off a cliff into the unknown. We all climbed onto that bus. It was danger and opportunity, the classic paradox, all wrapped into one searing realization: get with it or get lost. Now the stakes seem to me so much larger, the bar so very much higher. Forget the troubles of organizations. We've got bigger problems to face. The fraudulent bookkeeping practices of a handful of corporations? There are over 10,000 publicly-held corporations in the US. Some very small number of them have been caught screwing up (and screwing everyone around them, too). Is this a trend? Or is it just the loud noise of headlines? I certainly don't know. Are there others who haven't been caught yet? Probably. It matters, yes. But it isn't the crisis we need to have our eye on. It isn't the transformation that could be insistently, hotly breathing down our necks. I think that's perhaps what Ethelynn Owen had in mind when she made her comment. (Does she care to elaborate? Did I even spell her name right?) My opinion? We humans are messing up the planet something awful. We are a frog drinking up the pond in which we live. We will not get away with it for very long. So, can we open some space for the really BIG picture? Or shall we only be moved by what is close at hand? Ralph Copleman (Recovering History Major) P.S. As someone pointed out at one of those OT events years ago. There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
