Hack

Hack: Change the story

by Mark Addleson at Organization Development and Knowledge Management, George Mason University, School of Public Policy

December 17, 2011 at 8:17am

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Contribution Summary

Summary

Unless we change the story we won't change anything fundamental.

Our stories keep us doing what we're already doing or open up new possibilites for action. The language of 'efficiency', 'reengineering', 'training', 'data', 'structure', 'control,' and 'management'.... imprisons us in an industrial age mindset. Work-talk should be about 'organizing,' 'good work,' 'agility', and relationships - 'care', 'helping', 'accountability'.

Moonshot(s)

Problem

Management is a paradigm. It's principles and practices are 'designed' to be consistent. You can't change part of paradigm. You have to dismantle it at its foundations. Changing management is a deeply political process.

Our stories (narratives and conversations) are powerful. They keep us doing what we've been doing or, if we change them, allow new possibilities for action.

'Management', 'superiors,' 'subordinates,' 'performance,' 'results,' 'deliverables,' 'benchmarks,' 'efficiencies,' 'core competencies', 'workers,' 'managers'.... are all part of an industrial-age mindset. Can you imagine a work-place without them? It is the one we want.

There is so much focus on 'the organization'. This is a distraction. Organizations can't and don't do anything; they are abstractions (have you ever seen one?). Focusing on the organization only serves to keep high-control - compliance, rules, rigid structures - in place. Let's stop talking and thinking about 'the organization' Let's focus on our (collective) work and talk about the organizing we together do to get things done.

Changing the story (stories) isn't enough. We have to go further. But unless we change the story we are forever stuck in machine-age work and machine-age organizing practices.

Helpful Materials

Mark Addleson (2011), Beyond Management: Taking Charge at Work (Palgrave Macmillan).

Gordon Mackenzie (1998), Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guid to Surviving with Grace (Viking)

Donella Meadows (2001) 'Dancing with Systems,' http://www.sustainabilityinstitute.org/pubs/Dancing.html

Edgar Schein (2009), Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help (Berrett-Koehler)

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