RE: Giving up on education

[Aidan Ward <aidan_ward@antelopes.com>]

Denizens,

Peter Hunter and Myron are discussing what are getting called basic 
attitudes as though they were individual traits.

We are social animals with intensely perceptive and complex social 
skills that we have limited ability to make conscious. We know that 
our behaviour towards others is shaped by our sense of how we fit in 
the social system and what we have to do to make ourselves acceptable 
or to survive in other ways.

When someone joins an organisation there are intense fantasies on 
both sides about what might happen. Often corporates go through a 
baroque selection procedure none of which focuses on the candidate as 
an independent human who might in time offer real leadership. The 
waste in this process is colossal. The individual has fantasies about 
being taken care of, and of having their contribution valued. If any 
has ever seen any of this surfaced and negotiated during the joining 
process I would be fascinated to hear.

If the engagement of an individual with and organisation were to be 
real, rather than cynically spun, there would have to be a platform 
where that potential was discussed as it developed. This is done 
informally in some small organisations I have experienced. It tends 
to go to a very narrow concept of contribution which again denies the 
life of the individual and the potential in the engagement. The 
deepening of a productive relationship gets lost in the 
accountability and blame game.

Is anyone working on how you would do this for real?

Aidan Ward
Antelope Projects Ltd