Comments on: How Corporations Became Culturally Dysfunctional and Why Simple Solutions Won’t Fix Them

By: John Rose

John Rose — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 03:57:56 +0000

If you haven't read the Capitalist Manifesto by Louis Kelso, you should. Published in 1958, and now out of print: http://www.kelsoinstitute.org/download.htmlThe founders of my company were early adopters of Kelso's ownership principles. They took a more conservative approach to Employee Stock Ownership Plans and instituted an Employee Stock Purchase Plan instead. Unfortunately, without an ESOP trustee to manage the whole of the employee stock, the employees do not have collective strength. ESOP's could, as you propose in your article, could give a greater control of the company to employees if their trust fund held special voting class stock. But that ship sailed long ago for my company, and when the founders retired, their dreams and leadership were lost to the tyranny of the shareholders, whose desires can only be measured by the instantaneous pulse of the market. Bastards, all of us investors.God bless Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard for their efforts, may they rest in peace. When they retired a series of managers tried to run the company. But as managers they were slaves to the investors...they could never be the leaders that Bill and Dave were.

By: lugon

lugon — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 22:49:44 +0000

It might be that it takes a different activism. Shut down the PC and “go local” for a while. Then come back and share. Rinse and repeat.At worldchanging.org someone suggested things are too complex for us to be just optimistic or just pesimistic.

By: Phil Mitchell

Phil Mitchell — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 15:10:49 +0000

Dave, I’ve been benefiting for a while from your wide reading and thoughtful blogging. I have to say I think you’re stumbling badly in your thinking on this one. Is the world far more complex and interconnected than a simple cause-and-effect (conspiracy or top-down) model can capture? Of course. Are we all in this (ie., share responsibility) together? Of course. But the conclusions you draw:”Organization and activism are extremely unlikely to change these things” and “it’s futile to try to speed up the process” are non-sequiturs. Complex systems such as ecosystems (or societies), in fact, are capable of rapid change — they do it all the time! — but for us to effectively guide change into sustainable pathways we need to stop thinking in terms of simple cause and effect, and think about how to create a shift in consciousness organically and systemically. In my book, that does not call for *less* activism, it calls for *more*. And we need to do it now.

By: Philosopher Poet

Philosopher Poet — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:47:59 +0000

Short Time Lurker…While I don’t always agree with every point you have, you are nothing if not interesting, and rather thorough. You provide me with much food-for-thought, thanks in advance for the future musings.You seem to have quite a writer’s stamina built up, and unlike other blogs that I have read, rarely do you write long winded, self-absorbed rants. If you do, they are at least interesting and well crafted. (Not something I can say for myself. I blame in on my youth… or some other nameless attribute.)Anywho, Just felt that I should toss my two cents in the hat. I know how much I enjoy comments, so I felt it time to let you know of another reader’s existence. (The interested audience, a writer’s fuel!) Before I digress too far; keep up the good writing.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 04:55:38 +0000

Dave, thanks so much for putting all these thoughts into words. You can see from my post titled ‘claustrophobia’ from yesterday that I have been recently thinking a lot in these same directions. But I’m never able to put things into words as clearly as you are, I admire that skill so very much. I was thinking more today about this stuff and about how we are all complicit in this evolution (devolution?) but really only collectively, not individually. Though along the way there became enough people with a capitalistic mindset that swayed the blance. And it continues to evolve and sneak up on us in more and more insidious ways. My mom likened it to the growth of cataracts – they can be slowly changing over time and you have no idea until you one day become blind. It’s very scary to me. I’d be interested to hear your comments on my post if you have time. It is reassuring to know that you also think that “picking one’s battles” comes from an instinct for when the fight is worth it. Because I’ve started feeling like I have to fight every single battle because I never know when we’ll finally hit that flashpoint when the fighting will be completely futile. Except I just can’t because there are too many and they are too impossible with my time and resources. So as usual I stick to my smallnesses. The lake is thawing and it’s time to pull the kayaks out for early morning wildlife communing. -R.

By: David Parkinson

David Parkinson — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 00:41:28 +0000

Thanks Dave; another wonderful post. Plenty to think about here. Not the happiest of thoughts, maybe; but it feels like reality.

By: Dermot Casey

Dermot Casey — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 22:54:55 +0000

Davesound like you’re convincing yourself that you’re not so important when in fact it may be otherwise. You may be the key person. Do as much as you can. Dermot

By: Chris Corrigan

Chris Corrigan — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 21:35:35 +0000

Dave…I refer you to my late father in law’s (Peter Frost) book from 2003 called Toxic Emotions At Work, which looks at the role of the “toxin handler” in organizations, and furthers the idea that organizations can be arenas of compassion and that in fact commpassion is a leadership skill and capacity.Also check out CompassionLab which he helped to found at the Universities of BC and Michigan.