The book Systems Thinking by Jamshid Gharajedaghi begins with the following quote from the unpublished internal report The Raveled Knot: An Examination of the Time-to-Market Issue at Analog's Semi-conductor Division by Charles Hampden-Turner and Linda Arc:
The most stubborn habits which resist change with the greatest tenacity are those which worked well for a space of time and led to the practitioner being rewarded for those behaviors. If you suddenly tell such persons that their recipe for success is no longer viable, their personal experience belies your diagnosis. The road to convincing them is hard. It is the stuff of classic tragedy.
7 comments:
Interesting quote..But I always thought that the first line isnt true. Even evolution has nto resisted changes, may be the author should have quoted some examples for that statements...What do you think?
I think the "resistance to change" is more connected to human's mindset than to the Nature. It is more appropriate if we associate above quote with personal habits and biases. What do you feel, Phoenix?
Thanks for the clarification Shencottah. Well I agree wtih the statement. Because emprical results that one gets based on his habit is certainly more valuble than a theory someone says.
However, the most comfortable things that a person has is his thoguhts and habits, if not he would not be having it.
My question now is, is the author meaning to say just for the sake of argument that their receipe for success is not viable? Just as something to prove his point.If that is the case then it is fine, otherwise that statement doesnt carry any meaning from my perspective I will explain with an example. Just because someone trips and falls I cannot give him my pair of spectacles (corrective lenses) to keep him from falling the next time. Everyone has a pair of lens called habits which keeps them from falling sometimes, makes them stride atimes and makes them fall at times. so there is no such thign as "Your" wrong receipe of success from my "Point of view".
Though the thoughts which I seem to understand from him are entirely opposite to my views, i would like to read this book...let me know if it is worht reading.
" If you suddenly tell such persons that their recipe for success is no longer viable, their personal experience belies your diagnosis.The road to convincing them is hard."
This could be understood in at least two ways:
1. You cant simply pass on your experience as a piece of wisdom to the other guy and hence convincing is impossible.
2. The guy who is "resisting change" is already rewarded for his behaviour or approach of the old days; unless he really feels that it does not work any longer why shoud or why will he change?
Any case, matter of getting convinced is too subjective like another great word "common sense"
A quote..
Jawaharlal Nehru: "Ignorance is always afraid of change."
Thanks to all for your comments.
We value our experiences and the lessons, we thought, we learnt from them. The issue here is not that. The question is whether the things, we thought we learnt from our experiences, are preventing us from seeing something afresh now? One cannot speak these things for others. But one can carefully watch oneself to see if this is the case. This is not to say that you accept other's experience as wisdom. It raises the question: are we able to see the wisdom if it comes in front of us? Or is there a possibility of ignoring it due to the fact that we are not able to come out of earlier mindset?
Phoenix, I haven't read the book. The book is oriented towards managers, organization,etc. This quote has caught my attention when I flipped through it.
Shencottah,
That interpretation is cool....but that is not an easily interpreatable statement from what the author tries to say....(may be my poor comprehension or authors bad style! )
true experience should not blind you from experimenting..at the same time wisdom to know when to experiment comes with experience..it all depends on where one draws the line...
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