AN ALTERNATIVE TO "NEAR JOURNEY'S END!" CROSS REFERENCE: HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELF?

AN ALTERNATIVE TO “NEAR JOURNEY’S END!”

CROSS REFERENCE: HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELF?

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© April 9, 2009

“Unhappy he, who from the first of joys, society, cut off, is left alone, amid this world of death.”

James Thomson (1834 – 1882), Scottish poet

“The mind hath no other immediate object but its own ideas. It is evident that our knowledge is only conversant about them.”

John Locke (1632 – 1704), English philosopher

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REFERENCE:

The idea of identity and defining oneself in this uncertain climate of the times has generated many responses on many levels. I’ve shared a personal one about an engineer seeking employment, and a former university president and trend-setting educator. Now, I am sharing one from a Florida university professor, and international organization development (OD) consultant.

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A PROFESSOR WRITES:

Jim

A nice set of ideas, as usual. On my new path, I am convinced we are moving into a new "post organization" reality. My hope is that this does not become one more set of arguments about what is or is not post modernism but instead allows for many new models of organizing to emerge, models that both you and I have argued for in many ways.

My own focus has been for years on what I laughingly call our SOS signals for help in forming these post organizational forms of work. SOS are self-organizing systems and many of us prefer this organizing approach to the hierarchy and control assumptions of a long ago age.

Only as wishful thinking, I outlined what I thought we might be able to accomplish when we begin to grow up and take shared responsibility for how we organize ourselves instead of falling back on the patterns that literally emerged out of the old testament and the building of the pyramids.

The hidden secret in SOS is that political science and OD have known for a very long time that this self organizing is possible given the right conditions and those are the same conditions that have often been so threatening to the established order. No matter the governance system at work they have successfully attacked and undermined the pure form of political theory called anarchy.

Anarchy is to organize a system at the lowest not the highest level and it need not be nihilistic at all. The near total misunderstanding of the theory has given the name a meaning that was never intended by those early intellectuals who were able to glimpse the future of human liberation.

However, I have come to accept the possibility that our species is still primarily at an adolescent level of development. I have hope in these new times where we have both an incredible set of communication tools and one very global demand to rebuild our economy on a new set of basic assumptions.

We have now both the potential and the need. If we can just educate ourselves about all of the alternative forms of organizing that exist we may be able to grow towards not one hegemonic organizing principle (hierarchical control) but instead encourage many new and innovative forms to emerge at the level where most of humanity resides.

These are exciting times and no one way will help us to grow but the concept of self organizing may just be the missing key and from this a multitude of new ways of organizing may emerge if we can stay open and experiment.

These thoughts have been with me for more than 40 years now but today I am beginning to see the possibilities of major change and I dream of a post organizational world that allows for so much more human potential to emerge in so many new and fascinating ways.

K

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DR. FISHER RESPONDS:

Your idea is not silly. In fact, I think it is quite pragmatic and relevant to our times. A Self Organizing System (SOS) is what is needed at every level in every quadrant of this nation, and in both hemispheres of this small planet. It is a fine idea, and I applaud you for creating and using it in your work. I’m sure it has been quite successful. Remember “Occam’s Razor,” the rule that the simplest is preferred to the more complex when it comes to rules and theories.

In NEAR JOURNEY’S END, I write of two Indian villages on the western side of India that managed to be environmentally friendly, and quite competitive in household industries. They are very much in sync with your idea.

We must be weary of progress and all the platitudes associated with it. The slums in which “Slumdog” was filmed, where a helicopter survey of the population – I’m not kidding – determined 300,000 people lived in this prime real estate, when perhaps a more realistic number would be a million, is to be bulldozed into extinction and the people relocated in high rise buildings.

The problem with this, aside from the cultural insensitivity to it, is that thriving cottage industries are in these slums in the making of pottery – some of the best in all India, linens, rugs, jewelry, and so on. It is another example of greed being promoted with the rhetoric of humanism.

You no doubt are aware of these developments in your work in these parts. If so, I would be interested to learn more. Your SOS seems ideal, along with sanitation, fresh drinking water, modern plumbing, and somehow, cleaning up the river that these slum dwellers depend on to do their laundry, bathe and play.

A colleague of mine, whom I taught with at the University of South Florida, and worked with as an OD psychologist at Honeywell, has a SOS of his own. He treats boys suffering from ADHD at Advent Home in Calhoun, Tennessee. This is what I wrote in NEAR JOURNEY’S END (unpublished):

“Twenty years ago, Dr. Blondel Senior and his wife Gloria acquired several acres of property in Tennessee, and started the Advent Home with the aim to establish a minimum distraction environment for boys suffering from ADHD, and related symptoms.

“The boys were put on a vegan diet, given group therapy and one-on-one counseling, provided with ample outdoor activities, given tutoring and close supervision to turn them from disturbed young men to productive citizens.

“They come to the Advent Home often defiant, refusing to cooperate, insisting on eating what they want, going to bed and getting up whenever they feel like it, attending school when they are in the mood, while considering church for clowns and parents, and doctors and teachers as idiots. Dr. Blondel and Gloria Senior call their self-organizing system, “Maturation Therapy.”© ™

“Remarkable about Maturation Therapy© ™ is that there are no drugs, but a minimum distracting environment in which TV, video games, and worldly music have been taken away replaced by outdoor education programs, learning of the environment and all aspects of the eco-system, enjoying country fresh air, balancing exercise activities vigorous academic programs, and involving the boys in individual research, group participation, and intensive tutorial counseling.

“The home is on a real farm with the expected farm animals as well as exotic ones, such as a Llamas. The boys do gardening, feed the animals, landscape and participate in organized sports. They live in modern well-equipped dormitories with each house having a live-in proctor.

“Meals are on a schedule, as is homework, bedtime and morning calls. The staff includes accredited teachers, developmental and professional counselors, and childcare specialists.

“The home has its own radio station, chapel and bible school, and agricultural program. The campus is quite beautiful with modern state-of-the-art classrooms, laboratories and a library.

“The boys have their own dock and pontoon boat where they study currents, erosion, and the wetlands that adjoin the campus on this branch of the Tennessee River.

“The students built a 30-foot climbing wall to develop teamwork, and social skills, along with a nine-hole golf course on the campus. During a recent special leadership challenge, one student half way up a difficult rock climb struggled to overcome his fear of heights. After struggling for several minutes, he was able to complete the climb with lots of encouraging words from other boys. He embraced rather than running from his fear. Afterwards, he felt so good that he talked about another climb.

“One parent who had his defiant fourteen-year-old son in the program said, “I can go to bed at night now not worrying about when Keith will be coming home, and not wondering if he is getting into drugs, alcohol, or promiscuous activities. I sleep peacefully knowing that Keith is in a safe environment at Advent Home.”

“If this sounds too good to be true, it isn’t. Many of the boys have gone on to some of the best colleges and universities in the country, and have successfully completed professional careers in medicine, dentistry, engineering, architecture, psychology, education, among other disciplines, and are now serving society.

“Over the years in my several visits to this campus, I have watched it grow. I have talked to parents and benefactors and to a person they are thrilled with its success. It was a dream Dr. Senior had when we were working at Honeywell, and it has reached fruition. If you are ever in the neighborhood of the Advent Home, pay it a visit. You are always welcomed to observe it and to bask in its symmetry and beauty.”

That is precisely why I applaud your Self Organizing System. I’ve seen it used and it works!

Be always well,

Jim