Creative Leadership Coaching

Carman De Voer Mais has developed a fresh and insightful PowerPoint presentation on learning organizations. He makes the important point that becoming a learning organization isn’t something that “patched on” to the existing organizational paradigm, but rather a transformation of both the paradigm and the players.  I’m going to try to share that presentation with you [...]

Hi Carman, I am glad to hear that you are feeling restored to health! It’s a pleasure to read your posts again. Yes, I agree – Alfred North Whitehead once said that whatever constitutes a world view can be understood to constitute a religion. And, process theologian, David Ray Griffin, who interpreted and extended Whitehead’s work, observed [...]

Hi Lisa,  Thank you for enriching and expanding the Organization as Theocracy metaphor. I especially enjoy the way you integrate the concepts into your own educational and industrial experience. I am excited by the potential praxis of reflection and action we’ve ignited which demonstrates the power of thought to “negate accepted limits and open the [...]

Carman, What a creative essay! It sounds like you have a background in religious studies or theology. May I ask if that is true?  The organization as theocracy metaphor is a potentially useful one in that it’s been multiply observed ( I hope my readers will forgive me for not looking up the references) that our understanding [...]

Hi Lisa, I had fun originating the “theocracy” metaphor. Your question, ‘What are the dynamics that can lead us to imagine other people as objects?’ guided me throughout. As with all metaphors it both illuminates and obfuscates. Organization As Theocracy Theocracy: government by men claiming to know the will of God. Etiology of Error The [...]

Carman, You are a prolific writer and thinker!  You make several points in your post that all deserve some reflection and response.  Yes, the Cave metaphor seems to “work” for world views/paradigms in general, and it can, therefore, certainly be applied to the worldview which shapes traditional organizations.  And, a — perhaps the — guiding [...]

Hi Lisa, Two elements that strike me about the Cave allegory are: 1) Dehumanization 2) Degradation Interestingly, The Free Dictionary links dehumanization with mechanization: 1. To deprive of human qualities such as individuality, compassion, or civility: slaves who had been dehumanized by their abysmal condition. 2. To render mechanical and routine. Given the resurgence of [...]

Scrooge’s Metanoia and Organizational Conscience Hi Lisa, Wikipedia describes metanoia (changing one’s mind) as “embracing thoughts beyond its present limitations or thought patterns.” Ebenezer Scrooge’s metanoia seems to support this definition. But Scrooge’s “shift of mind” also appears to have been a group experience. Could metanoia have occurred apart from the Spirits? To illustrate, Scrooge [...]

Carman, Sorry for the long delay! My executive and career coaching practice includes working with people in career transition, and, unfortunately, many people are needing this kind of support right now. Regarding transformation, you wrote:  “It changes ‘how’ we know. Change thus appears to involve the re-perception of reality. [It...] involves the ‘deconstruction of a [...]

Carman writes: Hi Lisa,  I’ll try to paraphrase your questions: 1. Is emergent (bottom-up) organization compatible with goals and direction (top-down)? 2. When is the imposition of limits appropriate? Morgan explains that “the intelligence of the human brain is not predetermined, predesigned, or  preplanned. Indeed, it is not centrally driven in any way. It is [...]