Joe's Jottings
Jottings Number 43, Reply A, by Chris Cavanaugh:
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 95 15:44:13 -0700
You triggered thoughts on this last "Jottings" when you mentioned
the values
which we will need as rudders for the avalanche of change we will witness/be
a part of. Based on a model and tool for measuring values developed by
Hall
and Tonna, there is a way to understand where the societal values are
shifting. Their normative data indicates that in the majority of
corporations where they or their practitioners have measured group values,
there is a values shift occuring. The shift can be characterized as the
move
from task to relationship, external locus of control being outside to a
locus
of control being inside, a movement from law as rule to law as guide,
independence to interdependence. I'm a practitioner, and I concur that
this
is what I have seen in my client organizations as well.
This is the good news. The bad news is that this transition is the messiest.
Their model is developmental and when someone is experiencing this type
of
transition they will feel a profound sense of confusion and conflict.
The
Narcisus and Goldman, light and dark, anima/animus in all of us and
therefore in our institutions will seem to be pulling in two different
directions.
If I have any fear, it is that this process can cause alienation,
segmentation and devisiveness. Then, you drop into this process unmeasured
power for touching so many so quickly with so much, I can see massive
confusion and unfortunately fear and the concommittant backlash. Backlash
is
simply the retreat into the values which are in the earlier stage of
development which makes up the first half of the worldview that characterizes
this values shift I refered to earlier.
Its up to the people in the later stages of development to provide the
direction, help people to articulate the values needed and operationalize
them into specific visions, principles and behaviors. This way the people
with the values awareness can model the outcomes of collaboration, community,
interdependence, systems awareness with its interdependencies, using tools
for self actualization vs. control etc.
You're right, values are at the core of this thing. And I'm not talking
about the muddied notion of values coming out of the national rhetoric
about
"family" values which is just a cover for what I consider a regressive
sense
of "decency and morality" defined by organized religion. Values
are the
beliefs and views of the world that inform our behaviors, decisions and
skill
development.
Chris