Management in a World of Turtles

[Harrison Owen]

OK Folks - we have kicked the SOS (self-organizing System) ball about for a
bit, which seems to have gotten the juices flowing. So how about playing the
game? Just imagine. . . 


Your friend, a manager in a middle sized organization, just had an
interesting experience. When he woke up this morning, there it was - a real
blinding flash of the obvious! Something that he had always known but never
quite had the courage to say out loud. He was totally out of control, at
least in any meaningful sense of the word, "control." Sure he had made his
plans, and devoted best efforts to control the variables of his world so
that he could meet his plan - but at the end of the day he had to admit that
rarely was the plan really followed, and when it was, the results didn't
look much like what he had intended. Sometimes he and his colleagues looked
at the fruit of his efforts as "successful" - but in all honesty, it seemed
more like luck than skill. Pretty hard for a rising young executive with an
MBA who prided himself on doing everything by The Book! It was especially
hard because this morning he was going in for his annual Evaluation in which
he would be judged on how much he controlled, how well he did it, and how
long he had been in the job. Everything might just work out if his Boss
could just keep the clothes on the Emperor. And that was more than possible,
for what kind of Boss would like to admit that he had an out-of-control
employee? Especially when that employee was considered to be a "good" one!

So your friend is in need, and he just called you. Help!

What would it mean to be a manager in a world of Turtles?


Harrison 
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20845
Phone 301-365-2093

Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com/>

Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
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