Spirit of the New Workplace

Discovering the Greatest Possibilities of Work

The recent economic crisis has me thinking about how a living systems perspective applies here as well as to the organizations we might aspire to create.

Obviously, the layers of systems nested within other systems, and the complexity of the entire global situation suggests that point number one, interdependence, is certainly present.

Concepts of self-organizing apply as well, as it was a number of cells operating as if they were independent and pursuing their own individual purposes (without necessarily considering either how their actions were adding value to the larger system or possible ripple effects in other parts of the broader interdependent system) that led us to where we are. Self-organization works both ways…if you haven’t established common purpose and principles up front (whether through legal constraints, industry norms and standards, or “right” personal ethical choices), chaos and trouble results rather than the optimally performing system.

Finally, co-evolution. To me, this speaks at a minimum, to the interplay of Wall Street and Congress, as well as to the United States’ role vis-à-vis the rest of the world. This is also where the importance of feedback and mutual adjustment resides, which a few of our guidelines for leading living organizations address.

I welcome your thoughts on the above, and also highly commend to you a video of some of my Darden colleagues addressing the situation in a panel discussion last week. My colleagues Susan Chaplinsky, Peter Rodriguez, Elena Loutskina, and Brandt Allen from finance, economics, and accounting do a great job in about five minutes each of explaining the role of the Fed, the 9/11 attacks, the Asian financial crisis, key accounting changes, and so on that have brought us to this point. I learned a lot about recent economic history from them.

Then, my colleagues Ed Freeman from ethics and Alec Horniman from leadership and organizational behavior make some very provocative comments about the role of business education and individual M.B.A. students as leaders going forward. Alec makes several points about the “system” aspect of all of this, and Ed compellingly argues that individuals, schools, and companies focus on purpose [to the broader system]. I think it will be worth your viewing.

The Q&A was less interesting to me, though I did watch it, but the first 50 minutes or so are ace!

(If you would like to see a video of Wednesday’s faculty panel discussion held in the Abbott Auditorium, here is the link: Darden Panel on Current Financial Crisis)

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Notes

Suggested booklist

301 Ways to Have Fun at Work (or books of a similar bent)…



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Created by Joe Harder Jul 14, 2008 at 10:25am. Last updated by Joe Harder Jun 5, 2009.

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