Creative Leadership Coaching

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, I am so enjoying our dialogue and appreciate your posts here. The small details you add about your experience paints a picture of someone who already lives the experience of Partnership.  I am looking forward to reading your post on “Organization as Theocracy.” These guiding metaphors really shape our realities, don’t they?  Have a good week! Lisa From Carman de voer: [...]

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 [...]

Carman, Thank you for another exceptional post. Yes, all the thinkers you mention shape the lens through which we perceive our environment and the implicit assumptions we have about leadership and organizations. I  look forward to continuing this invigorating conversation, as our time allows. Have a great day! – Lisa Hi Lisa, Proceeding on the assumption that [...]

More compelling contributions from Carman de voer!  Hi Lisa,  With predictable perspicacity you observe that we cannot “un-ring the bell” –we may be “drawn back into comfortable, habitual ways of thinking and being.” Your comments afford a splendid segue into the Organization as Psychic Prison metaphor. Morgan says, “all theories of organization and management are [...]

Carman, Your example of the transformation of Scrooge in the Christmas Carol, illustrates how third parties can stimulate transformation by helping a leader see the current situation and dynamic more clearly, and consider new perspectives and possiblities. This whole area of the process of transformation is intriguing. By definition, it involves some kind of diversity [...]

Wow, Carman, your discussion of sudden and radical transformation throws open some doors that would be interesting to follow! Yes you draw an apt and fruitful comparison between transformation per se and spiritual transformation. In addition to the Christian concept and experience of metanoia that you discuss, this kind of spiritually transformative experience is found in other religious [...]