About

I sometimes feel like I’m an American, yet in my audiences there is occasional doubt as to from where I originate. In part this is may be due to my growing up in Iowa. We learn to judge others by their actions, not their speculations. For many years since I have lived in various locations outside of the political borders of the US.  Regardless of the place, I became known for criticizing the local limitations of what is best known as “business as usual.” This includes what people think about (living, working, loving and hating, and nothingness), how they come to think about it, and the values and actions that result from such thoughts. Bothersome to me has been how those traditions of thought come to define business as usual, which stands in disrespect to the majority having small choice and little voice, yet treats those managing the usual as sacrosanct. As such those attempting to managing business as usual, i.e., keep their positions, often become  concerned with whatever I was up to.  Their common comment was: “Look, we are busy here, we have little time for criticisms.”  Where I would argue that an effective way to keep a pot from boiling over was to stir it, there was silence.  When I offered to stop telling the truth about them if they would stop telling lies about me there were only threats and bluster.

From the constancy of this situation in many places, I was drawn to the realm of what might be called the fundamental role of the non-rational. I have since been very intrigued with finding ways to accommodate the power of the non-rational, realize ways to organize it, and move towards making its potential more widely available to those mentioned above: with little choice and no voice  so they might tap into more of the resources essential to improved life and living. It is unfortunate that this seems to end up in contradiction to the management of business as usual.

Humans, at least those who have been properly educated, are most taught to behave in ways that preserve doing the wrong thing while attempting to do it more efficiently. Failing in that, they mostly learn to sit down and shut up while paying homage to those in control that define a dominate logic and selective rationale.  Perhaps I was simply a slow or impossible learner, but somehow what was proposed as highly rational seemed humorously irrational to those involved and the larger environment to which its future well being was tied.

Once I was left behind and could thus be left alone, I had time to more clearly watch the importance of the non-rational.  I could then see how our avoidance of the non-rational, the politics, poetics, aesthetics and religions, led to it festering into the domain of the non-rational. As such, this avoidance and disregard fueled many of the conflicts and threats to survival we see gaining momentum.  Those we defined as irrational were neither crazy nor invalids, simply the byproduct of limited rationality. They tended to see things that others did not, and had no language for, but were frustrated in being kept from pursuing them. They occupied a separate reality.

Based on enduring mismanagement decisions in the many organizations I’ve work in, with and for, it seems timely to hesitate our traditions, and take stock of our situations. From doing this we might begin to see the value of the non-rational. I propose that such offers a beginning to seeing and managing the limits of unaided rationality.

As the threats from the irrational become more dire, we might want to consider some alternatives. We approach a time when a single individual, with a small part of readily available technology, might push forward with a strongly held rationale to illustrate the ultimate irrationality of our species.

We are coming to occupy a new kind of world. It is defined by a very different set of conditions. We need all the help we can locate and include in our effort. As a small part of this effort we have construction a corporate rehabilitation place. It addresses multiple purposes. It will mostly be a stage set to hold discussions and have reflections on to where the human journey is headed, what interventions might be needed, and are interventions even possible when what we call management doesn’t and probably can’t work.  The place of course has an international flavor and purpose, since its located in Iowa.

It was build without the most rational of limitations on design and construction. There was an absence of: plans, designs, budgets, functions and knowledge of the principles of practice dear to most professions and occupations. Expressions like: “It doesn’t matter.” “Go ahead and do it. If it doesn’t work we can always tear it out and recycle it.” and “We must do it this way, because this is how we do it.” were banned from the work site during realization of the facility.