While I indeed met some people who just quite simply don’t understand high mode issues (do they understand mode at all? Cason apparently does which is a great reason for me to one of these days sit down and talk to her. John Morgan, the pastor using RO in Pinon Hills, met with her this week and raved about her.), I also met some great folks who really understand the real issues: valuing each other for all that we can do and restoring dignity and discretion to work.
Ian Macdonald said that he had the Social Services call him when he did an intervention at a smelter in south New Zealand. They wanted to know what was happening at the factory because the number of domestic violence cases in the community had plummeted thirty percent.
That’s what I want to be about. That’s what attracted me to RO in the first place.
Back a few months ago, Al and I had an exchange over some comments I made about Jaques’s detractors. I was deeply gratified when, after I cleared up some misunderstandings resulting from unclear language on my part, Al said that he thought I really got the point, the point I reiterated above. Work doesn’t have to kill you. It doesn’t have to devalue you.
I come out of a Christian tradition that believes that work is a gift of God, where we express our talents in a gift back to Him. Work should fit and expect fully out of you. Jaques seemed to see what was really going on when that became real.
So, I’ve met some people who have restored my faith in the Requisite Organization community. Yes, many are self-serving: I’ve certainly been that way as a consultant. (Does anyone remember when I met Jerry Sternin? That was humbling.) Yet many are committed to making work a better place. I was greatly impressed in meeting Rev. Morgan and David Dadswell, the latter of McDonald’s consultancy. They seemed to understand the tensions and have a rich caring for people. McDonald’s integration of a moral philosophy of sorts with Jaques science has much to say for it and I will have to read more on it.
Both also had some keen things to say about the problems of my high-moders, including my 33 year old mode 9. And I understand why most of these folks don’t see this.
Image Credit: “Looking down at Château-d’Oex from our chateau on after a snowfall”. © 2008 E. Forrest Christian.
Comments 1
You haven’t done too badly with Ian’s name other than it’s Mac versus Mc. His web page is:
http://www.maconsultancy.com/
The opportunity is to transform society through work. Behaviours are a correlate of one’s contribution to society…productive contribution = productive behaviour and a dysfunctional experience at work and less than a productive contribution is apt to result in dysfunctional behaviours that extend to one’s home life and to society in general. Coincidentally enough, I had a conversation this morning where we were observing the dissatisfaction of some of the younger workers today and proposed that this had its relationship with the manner in which society has been raising its children, this last generation. We have generally focused on the acquisition of material wealth and we have bestowed the “gifts” associated with this wealth upon our children and have concurrently failed in many cases to bestow upon them a productive work ethic and a set of values that distinguishes the rewards associated with productive work from the entitlements that these individuals may believe exist in society because that is what our actions and our social welfare governments have taught them.
How do we undo the damage is the relevant question? And, how do we set a standard for productive work? We need to appreciate that for these individuals something is missing, though they may not have even distinguished that something is missing. The something is the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment with one’s self that accompanies a productive contribution to society and the recognition associated with their contribution as well as the opportunity to reach one’s full potential capability through development at work.