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ENLIGHTENED MANAGEMENT & the Organizational Imperative
A business book: Structuring organizations creatively and humanely
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A business book: Structuring organizations creatively and humanely
- 6.5”x 9” book format, full color covers
- Permanent stapled binding with coping
- Quality laser print, 248 pages, 1 illustration, 8 charts
- Approximate cost $15 or equivalent.
- Approximate mailing cost $15 or equivalent
To Order Click Here
| Book Summary |
Creating something well, that is useful to others and valued, can be a rewarding experience. When it is a
cooperative effort, undertaken willing between a few friends, this can be especially so. And yet most of us who
have had much experience in the business world, have found it to be a strife-ridden exercise with one’s
creative energies frequently stalemated by political infighting and stultifying bureaucratic controls. Why does
this disparity exist between the cooperative effort of a few friends, and the collective strife of many in large
business organizations?
The reasons and solutions outlined here concern the nature of organization itself. There is a cosmic
dimension to the way in which the whole of experience is organized. The reader is cast in the role of the
central character as a story unfolds about how to see into this universal system of order and properly
structure any business organization accordingly. It is possible to render its creative mechanics transparent, to
the benefit of everyone concerned—stockholder, employee, customer, and the societies in which we live and
contribute.
Amid the plethora of business books available, there is no other that provides specific practical guidance on
how to structure a complete organization from top to bottom for optimum results, regardless of the kind of
business. It is surprising that so little is understood in this vitally important area, while the business world
frantically jumps from one quick fix to the next, our social potential eroding in the process. The consequences
concern us all. The time is ripe for a more comprehensive business mentality to grasp and intelligently apply
the ideas presented in Enlightened Management.
cooperative effort, undertaken willing between a few friends, this can be especially so. And yet most of us who
have had much experience in the business world, have found it to be a strife-ridden exercise with one’s
creative energies frequently stalemated by political infighting and stultifying bureaucratic controls. Why does
this disparity exist between the cooperative effort of a few friends, and the collective strife of many in large
business organizations?
The reasons and solutions outlined here concern the nature of organization itself. There is a cosmic
dimension to the way in which the whole of experience is organized. The reader is cast in the role of the
central character as a story unfolds about how to see into this universal system of order and properly
structure any business organization accordingly. It is possible to render its creative mechanics transparent, to
the benefit of everyone concerned—stockholder, employee, customer, and the societies in which we live and
contribute.
Amid the plethora of business books available, there is no other that provides specific practical guidance on
how to structure a complete organization from top to bottom for optimum results, regardless of the kind of
business. It is surprising that so little is understood in this vitally important area, while the business world
frantically jumps from one quick fix to the next, our social potential eroding in the process. The consequences
concern us all. The time is ripe for a more comprehensive business mentality to grasp and intelligently apply
the ideas presented in Enlightened Management.
| CONTENTS |
PART I - ORDERS OF ORGANIZATION
1 - A General Discussion
2 - Personal Organization
3 - The Hunter Clan
4 - The Swidden Tribe
5 - The Country Town
6 - The Nation City
7 - The Civic Analog
PART II - COSMOPOLITAN ORGANIZATION
8 - Profit Distribution for Survival Advantage
9 - A Meal in the Market - The Organizational Challenge
10 - Questions of Shopping - Organizational Needs
11 - Packaging a Product
PART III - CHARTING THE ORGANIZATION
12 - Chart 1 - The Three Company Dimensions
13 - Chart 2 - The Operations Department - product work
14 - Chart 3 - The Construction Department - product work
15 - Chart 4 - The Design Department - development work
16 - Chart 5 - The Finance Department - financial work
17 - Chart 6 - The Sales Department - sales work
18 - Chart 7 - The Marketing Department - marketing work
19 - Chart 8 - The Personnel Department - organization work
PART IV - TRANSPARENCY AND RESONANCE
20 - Common Accord in Job Interfacing
21 - Common Accord and Resonance
22 - Transparency of the Creative Process
| SAMPLES |
CHAPTER 1
A GENERAL DISCUSSION
Organization. It is a strange word. It means different things in different contexts.
“How so?” you might say. “The context itself is organized in some way. So how can the word mean different things.
Organization is organization.”
“What about chaos then? Is random order a form of organization?”
You think for a moment to be sure of your answer. “Well, chaos certainly needs an observer to be identified as such.” You are
confident that you have found a handle on the question. “And it can only be known as such in relation to order. By its nature,
chaos must be one face of some kind of order. Otherwise we would not be able to identify it.”
“Hmmm. Is that really so? Maybe the only order is chaos, and apparent orders that may emerge within it from time to time are
transient phenomena, a mere passing expression of chaos.”
You look at me like I was the accused in the prisoner’s dock. “Why that’s utterly absurd. You are being less than honest.”
“Me? Less than honest?” I’m a little annoyed.
“Yes, you. There are ordered assumptions implicit in your statement that render it so much double talk.”
“Double talk is it?! How so?”
“Well examine the statement with just a little impartiality. Can’t you see that saying ‘from time to time’ implies a sequential
order of time that is fundamental even to chaos? Can’t you see that identifying transient phenomena implies an observer with a
sufficiently ordered mind and sensory apparatus to perceive events in a spatial order of things?”
“Yes. I suppose I see what you mean. A good point. But then perhaps the ordered mind and sensory apparatus are
themselves just a transient expression of chaos, an accidental order that will ultimately pass into oblivion along with the
perception of the passing.”
You squint at me through your reading glasses. “You really are a case. Now you are saying that chaos is oblivion. Can’t you
see that? And oblivion it must be if it is the only order. Random order is a homogeneous annihilation without ordered
phenomena. But then we wouldn’t be around to worry each other about it, would we?!”
“I suppose not.”
“Of course not! A totally random order is not consistent with the ordered universe that we see around us. Such chaos as may
exist is but one aspect of the order that sustains the whole of the universe.”
“And who is to say that this universe is real? There is nothing permanent about it. Why it is changing every instant, mere
passing episodes in a dream. The whole thing is no more than an illusion.”
“Why that rubbish is just more double talk.” You shake your head as if to rearrange your thoughts. “You really are a master at
it. Now you are trying to say that both order and chaos are an illusion and that nothing is real. But that view must then itself be
an illusion, and yet you maintain that it alone is real? Why, you are trying to say that the only reality is illusion. It is a contradiction
in terms. Words lose their meaning, my friend.”
“My point exactly.” I give you a big smile to rub the point in. “Unless you want to suggest that there is some permanence to
meaning that can survive the chaotic transience of events.”
“Of course there is. There must be. Unless we are all totally mad, we must believe that.”
“Aha. But then you must believe that meaning inheres in an order that determines the nature of transience, and not in
transient events themselves.”
“What’s that? What fool notion are you trying to slip past me now?”
“It is simple enough. You believe that meaning derives from an order that transcends space and time. This order cannot be
identified as confined in space and time.”
A suspicious expression invades your face. “Of course it can be identified. If I understand your meaning I see you before me.
Your meaning is implicit in your person and the words that come out of your mouth!”
“Not if I walk away, it’s not. Does the meaning in my words walk away with me?”
“Let’s not be ridiculous. I have a memory of course. And the meaning of your words is associated with my memory of you.”
“But the event itself is gone, no longer a reality. Neither I nor your memory of me determines the nature of meaning. I am not a
permanent resident of your mind. And what are words but uttered sounds that have already passed. Where is the meaning in
sounds?”
“You can’t be serious. Why it is the meaning we have learned to associate with them. We learn spoken language from the crib
and the sand box. It is passed on from generation to generation. It is part of our culture, part of our collective experience.”
“So far so good. In other words, you believe that meaning is determined by an order that transcends transient events in space
and time, just as I said.”
“Wait just a minute! You’re twisting things around. I didn’t say that.”
“Is that so! You said language was passed on from generation to generation. Surely this passing on from one generation to
the next is a transient event, yet the meaning implicit in language is universally understood by everyone. Now how is this
universal meaning possible if there is no common order implicit in experience that transcends the perpetual passing of
events?”
“That’s a very good question. But let me twist things around for a change. How is universal meaning possible if there is such
an order as you suggest?”
“That’s a fair question also. This order that transcends the passing of events also determines the organization of events, so
that although events may be different in space and time, they are all organized in a similar way. It is precisely this characteristic
of experience that allows us to learn from experience and also to benefit from the experience of others.”
“What’s that got to do with language?”
“How else could we learn language from parents and friends?”
“Now you are contradicting yourself again. You said at the outset that organization means different things in different contexts.
Now you are saying that everything is organized in a similar way. You can’t make a single straight statement.”
“There is no contradiction in what I said and both statements are straight.”
“What?” There is a puzzle etched in your intelligent face, now a caricature of itself. “Things are both the same and different?
There’s no contradiction in that?”
“Not if you allow of hierarchies in experience. A tree may have many different branches, but they are all the same tree. And
there may be many different trees of the same kind. And there may be many different kinds of trees, but they are all trees. And
trees are just one kind of plant.”
“And plants are just one kind of life, etceteras. You are talking about groups and classes, not hierarchies, my friend.” You toss
me an intimidating look of disgust. “These are just distinctions of kind made convenient by language. You are twisting things
around again.”
“Not so! There is an ordered hierarchy hidden in the classification of all life forms that is essential to how they evolve and
grow, irrespective of the diversity of species. In fact it is more general than that. The organization of the whole of experience is
dependent upon a common hierarchy that is implicit in the way phenomena evolve.”
“Now that’s a mouthful!” You throw your head back and laugh. “You’ve bitten off more than you can chew this time. Why if that’
s true there must be some evidence in experience. In fact there must be some historical evidence in human experience as to
how this experience itself is organized.”
“In human experience?”
“Yes. There must be specific evidence in human experience.”
“So you want to confine the discussion to human experience?”
“Are you not talking about how we humans and our societies evolve?”
“Among other things, yes.”
“And you maintain that there is historical evidence in human experience as to how experience itself is organized and evolves?”
“There is evidence, of course.”
“Then would you be kind enough to point it out.”
I overlook the sarcasm in your tone. “I will make an attempt. But you must try to examine the facts very carefully, with as much
fairness as you can muster.”
CHAPTER 6
THE NATION CITY
Many functions are not available in the country town. There is generally no need of them, or else they involve large numbers of
people. For instance, there are no research organizations, no laboratories, no universities or institutions of specialized
education. There are also no consultant firms, such as architects, consulting engineers, management consultants and the like.
There are no heavy industries, no steel plants or rolling mills, no automobile assembly plants, no foundries, no refineries or
petrochemical plants. There are no stock brokers, no major financial institutions, no department stores, no television or radio
stations. These are all functions of a nation city providing for needs on a national scale.
You are sitting at a conference table with your senior managers, in offices in the City of Chonburi, about one hundred and fifty
kilometers east of Bangkok. You are the president of a moderately sized property development company with interests in
various cities in Thailand, especially the Eastern Seaboard Development near Chonburi.
“We have a real problem here.” You look around the table. “Has anyone got any solutions.”
Your Sales Manager shuffles some papers in front of him, a little nervously. We may call him Sal, to make it easy to
remember his job. Sal is quite a promoter. “Thirty thousand percent profit is not such a large problem,” he says. “Many
companies would like to be in our shoes. We can’t help it if land prices suddenly escalate three hundred times overnight. We
had anticipated an increase when we purchased the land.”
Of course you had inside information well in advance that the Eastern Seaboard Development project would go ahead. You
had quietly purchased five thousand rai of land, two thousand acres. You had used a number of individuals and several
subsidiary companies formed on paper for the purpose. You justified the deception in order to prevent unreasonable price
demands. The total purchasing costs were thirty million baht, a little over one million dollars. Now the current market value is
over four hundred million dollars, even more once it is subdivided, not to mention the projected value of the developments on
the land.
“We didn’t anticipate such a large increase,” you reply caustically. It was true. Land prices had suddenly soared all over the
country, when it became apparent to everyone that land was being gobbled up at a furious rate. You focus on Sal with singular
attention. “You don’t have the full picture. You should see that we are faced with having to declare huge profits as we develop,
subdivide and sell off the property. We are a public company. You must know what we will have to part with in taxes. You must
also know what will happen to our stock.”
The Sales Manager smiles. “Of course we all know what will happen to the stock. Aren’t all of us here counting on that rather
heavily? Naturally we must expect to give something to the government in order to profit.” He meets with some agreeable
glances around the table and feels more at ease.
“Can you not think ahead of padding your own pocket as quickly as you can?” You are annoyed at his cavalier attitude. “What
about tomorrow? What about the fallout from yesterday?” You look hard into his eyes. “What about the ethics of what we have
done? A few hundred families have sold us their land, thinking they had a good deal. Now the money they received will not buy
them a patch large enough to sustain them anywhere in the nation. They will join the ranks of the homeless, when they could
have been wealthy. It has happened countless times from one end of the country to the other.”
Sal squirms a bit but musters a smile. “That’s just good business.” He feels himself on the defensive again. “We saw an
opportunity and took it. Their loss is not our fault. What can we do about it? We should be thankful to have been so fortunate. It
is their bad luck and not ours.”
“But it is our bad luck. Do you want to live beside beggars? We have lost potential buyers in our own projects. Who do you
think we are developing land for? Martians?”
“A lot of farmers elsewhere didn’t sell until after the boom. Some lose. Some win. It is just a matter of luck. And we have been
lucky.”
“We are faced with profits that will leave us with a horrendous tax bill and destabilize our stock. We cannot sustain these profit
levels. As surely as our stock will soar for a couple of years, it will crash again. And when it does crash it may be at a time when
we most need to attract investment capital to finance new projects. We will be unable to. Yet here we sit now with our hands full
of money that we have to give away to government and stockholders. Why should we give exorbitant profits to strangers and
overinflate our stock when we least need to attract investment capital? We must find ways of diverting this profit to stabilize our
future position.”
Your Design Manager, Des for short, opens a file in front of him. “We can defray profits easily enough in the beginning, if we
schedule the work with that view in mind,” he points out. He is a meticulous man and has given the matter a little thought. “We
can telescope the second and third phases to increase our capital outlay on services and infrastructure to coincide with phase
one. This will aggravate the problem of excessive profit in the later phases of development, but it can buy some time to divert
profits into future projects with additional land acquisition. We can also increase our outlay on the quality and extent of
infrastructure, better common areas, roads, parks, and recreational facilities, buried rather than overhead cables, better waste
disposal, water treatment and so on. This will enhance the salability of the development as well.”
It was a constructive idea, but not nearly enough. You ask your Construction Manager, Con, if he has any suggestions.
“Yes. Certainly.” He is always the image of confidence. “We can accelerate the construction of the golf course, since this
doesn’t involve the direct sale of land, and we can drag our feet on the industrial estates. We can also accelerate the high rise
projects, move our completion schedules forward, several months ahead of possession dates promised to the customer. This
would create a temporary lag of several millions of dollars between expenditures and income. It is not a lot, but it can help, and
it would also help our public image to be ahead of schedule for a change. But I don’t think that it would be wise to telescope the
installation of services in the later phases. The roads, sewers, water mains and so on, will deteriorate more rapidly with lack of
use. It may be better to delay the later phases until their excessive profits can be offset against less profitable developments.”
“We can’t delay them,” Sal comments with detectable dislike for Con’s opinions. They don’t get along. “We already have
contractual commitments.”
“Then it may be an opportunity to diversify.”
“Diversify how?” Sal smirks.
Con leans back in his chair. “Perhaps buy some expensive property in Bangkok and build a major hotel with a shopping
complex. That could eat up three hundred million easily enough.”
...
...
The Financial Manager speaks up again. “The most effective way to avoid declaring excessive profits is to make a major
expenditure in the near future. This obviously must be in the form of some capital investment. We can purchase more land, or a
project consistent with the nature of our business to date, or we can expand and diversify in some way.”
“It is a poor time to buy land,” your Acquisitions Manager observes. “Land prices are overinflated at present. I think we are due
for a correction before a year is out. Besides, we are well placed for land for a couple of years. We moved at the right time.”
“I see,” Fin replies politely. “We could set aside a fund for future acquisitions, but we would still be faced with huge taxes. And
the size of the fund and the interest it would earn would itself be an embarrassment, unless we established it as a separate
finance or investment company of some kind.”
There are some suggestions and discussion on various kinds of diversification possible. As the meeting closes, you make
requests of each of your department managers.
“Sales. I want you to closely review your sales projections, pricing schedules, competitor’s pricing, and expected quarterly
revenues over the next three years.
“Design and Engineering. I want you to review revised development costs in light of our discussions, unit costs and projected
quarterly costs over the next three years.
“Construction. I want you to review your construction project schedules and expected progress on a quarterly basis over the
next three years. Coordinate with both Sales and Engineering and provide input on any contingency expenditures that may be
encountered.
“Personnel. I want you to come up with a workable employee benefit package with cost estimates for each employee
classification, and also projected quarterly costs for the next three years.
“Acquisitions. I want you to have a second look at possible bargains in the property market. Everything from tourist to
commercial and industrial development potential. While you’re at it keep an eye out for existing businesses that are in financial
trouble, hotels, resorts, office and shopping complexes, anything.
“Finance. I want you to come up with a plan for a tolerable pattern of projected profits and growth that is healthy for our long
term survival. Suggest general strategies by which it may be attainable, with quarterly projections for the next three years, and
annual projections beyond that for another five years.
“Keep your reports brief and to the point.”
After the meeting, you attend to some routine affairs in your office, call for your Mercedes and leave for home early. You have
been invited to another dinner meeting. It is the last thing you want to do this evening but you are obliged to go. You are tired of
the speeches, the endless small talk and empty theories on everything from TQM to Re-engineering your organization. You are
tired of chasing after a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. You already have more wealth than you know what to do with. You
have a beautiful home, a beautiful wife, three beautiful children, three beautiful cars, a beautiful boat, a beautiful second home
in the mountains. You have been cursed with too much success.
What you do not yet fully realize as you navigate through the traffic, wondering what to do about your organization, is that it is
on the verge of a major transition. At present, your most senior managers operate at a senior supervisory level in the corporate
hierarchy. They are concerned with committing the resources of land, labor, materials and operating facilities to achieve results
related to product cycles in major projects.
`For example, when the construction manager initiates a project, he must first dispatch crews to survey and grade the site,
install sewers, watermains, electricity, and roadways. Once there is reasonable access to the properties, building construction
can begin—houses, townhouses, shophouses, factories, offices, high-rise projects and so on. All of this involves a diversity of
functional skills organized into crews of specialized trades that must work in an orderly sequence. Some of the work may be
contracted out. You must employ people to schedule them accordingly, and to keep track of their time and progress, the
equipment and the materials they use. You must also employ people to inspect their work and monitor their needs and
progress. This supervisory work is different in kind from functional work. It concerns the commitment of resources to product
cycles, as opposed to their application to specific tasks. Supervisory work implicitly gives direction to functional work. In any
case, the mainstream activity in your company is construction, associated with property development. This is you main product
work.
The Design Department employs both architects and engineers, although some large projects may be designed or
engineered on a contractual basis by outside consultants, under preliminary design guidelines specified by this department.
There are also draftsmen, a scheduling function to maintain proper priorities, surveyors, cost estimators, junior engineers and
technologists preparing contract documents, material specifications and purchase requisitions, and engineering inspectors.
All of these interdependent functions are organized under the department head at the senior supervisory level. In some
companies this design activity may go under various names, such as Engineering, Planning, Product Development, Research,
and the like. They are all concerned with developing the product idea.
The Sales Manager also works at the supervisory level. Under his direction are groups of people performing various
specialized functions. There is a group of sales people who maintain direct contacts with potential buyers and who service
consummated sales accounts. In the case of commercial and industrial sales this may involve detailed coordination with other
departments for the design, construction, and financing of specialized premises in commercial complexes or industrial
estates. There is also the task of pricing projects, in the light of both project costs and market competition. There is the job of
preparing and monitoring the terms and conditions of sales contracts and leases. There must be a small scheduling group
interfacing with engineering and construction scheduling to ensure that projects can be delivered on time in accordance with
contract commitments. Of course there will also be an advertising function, and forecasting. Similar activities are involved in any
sales department.
The Financial Manager too has specialized groups performing interdependent functions. The largest of these account for
expenditures and revenues, the usual job of accounting according to established procedures and producing reports. There is
also the vital task of maintaining adequate cash flow to finance the various projects, budgeting for the lag between expenditures
and revenues through various banking and financial arrangements. There is the compilation of the annual budget from
submissions by the various departments, together with quarterly and annual stockholder’s reports. Then there is the job of
arranging various financing strategies for domestic, commercial and industrial customers. There will also be someone
delegated the task of monitoring the system of accounts and assigning account numbers. These financial tasks are familiar to
every sizable company.
At this point in the growth of your organization, the Personnel function, and the Acquisitions function, don’t qualify as full
fledged departments with an interdependent variety of functions within them. The personnel function amounts to little more than
advertising new positions, screening applicants, and their initial introduction to the company. The officer in charge also keeps
track of job classifications and employee files, assists in dealing with employee problems and so on. But he has only one
assistant. Since the remainder of the personnel function remains largely undelegated, the Personnel Officer works more
closely with you as President, than more senior department managers.
Likewise the acquisitions function does not yet amount to a full fledged Marketing operation. The supervisory direction of
property acquisition is still retained as part of your job as President. You must intuit the direction that market trends may take
and decide in what general areas to commit the company according to your assessment of available opportunities. The person
responsible for actually acquiring land functions accordingly. Although he is a senior, knowledgeable person, he works very
closely with you, essentially at a senior functional level. In these Personnel and Marketing areas you thus continue to work at a
supervisory level.
As President of the company, you have a different relationship with the other four department managers that work at a
supervisory level. They must determine how best to commit the resources at their disposal to achieve the desired results. It is
you who must balance the needs and capacities of one department against another. There are various ways that you can do
this. You can decide to expand or cut back the work force. You can purchase more construction equipment, or reduce your
inventory of equipment in favor of periodic rentals. You can introduce new techniques, ideas, and equipment. You can provide
new, better, bigger or smaller premises. You can actively seek out growth opportunities. You can concentrate more on trying to
maintain a stable size with long term security. You can also consolidate your operations with a view to reducing your size for
more efficiency in difficult times.
This kind of work takes careful reflection. It is different in essence from either functional or supervisory work. It may be called
administrative in nature and it concerns sustaining the infrastructure of the organization. There is behind it yet another kind of
work, true managerial work, that determines the nature of the whole idea of a company. It is this that you are thrust into
confrontation with as you ponder the problem of too much profit. You have suddenly been provided with an enormous capacity
to expand. The unusual circumstances in which you find yourself dictate that you must expand, and quickly. How to do this
constructively with long term benefits for the whole organization, that is your problem.
As you continue to mull over some of the possible options that present themselves, it begins to dawn on you that there are
really only six areas in the company through which activity is focused: Construction, Design, Sales, Finance, Personnel, and
Marketing. There may be other stakeholders in a company, such as suppliers and government, but you have no say in their
organization. In one disguise or another, these same six focal points of activity are there in every company of sufficient size to
warrant their independent delegation. They may change their face, but they are always there. The mainstream activity, in your
case Construction, may become manufacturing in another company, or transportation, or communications, or banking, or
whatever, and the other five partners will always tag along.
For some reason you find it strange that this should be so. Is there some underlying imperative that dictates this
organizational pattern? Is it just Social Darwinism in action, a linear advance from hunter/gather to tribal village, to country town,
to corporate structures in a nation city, all without plan or purpose, as some western thinkers would have us believe? But if
there is no plan why does this pattern always emerge? And if there is no purpose, how are we to speak of development or
progress? Are modern city dwellers more advanced human beings than the age old hill tribes? Are they better people? Are their
organizations just more complex because of their numbers? Do our organizations change our lives or the people we are?
...
CHAPTER 21
COMMON ACCORD AND RESONANCE
As the meeting wound up there was some interesting conversation under way. You decided to treat everyone to lunch so that
it might continue. You are now seated around a large table in a Chinese restaurant and everyone is having suki yaki. The
Chinese call it hwo koah, meaning fire pot.
You throw the question that has been playing in your mind open to the group. “Why is mutual accord possible, and why is it
so intimately associated with insight into three dimensions?” you ask, while dipping some shrimps and vegetables into the
boiling water for cooking. Electrically heated cooking pots have been placed on the tables for the purpose. Everyone has joined
in. You are steering the conversation a bit, but it was headed in this direction anyway, thanks to Sal’s rather overbearing
opposition to anything that suggests that he must be in agreement. He has a certain nuisance value in situations like this.
“I suppose, in the end, that it’s just a matter of having to get along and get on with the job,” says Mark II. “Everyone has to
make certain compromises in life. It only stands to reason that we all can’t have everything that we want.”
“But why should there be three dimensions involved? Why is mutual accord in a business a matter of coming to terms with
three polar relationships? Why is this an organizational imperative? There is no compromise here. Is this just an accident of
evolution? Or is there some compelling reason that this must be so?” You are faced with a round of puzzled looks. All but Sal,
who is admiring the silk wall hangings adorning the red walls.
“There is more to this matter of mutual accord than first meets the eye,” Perse ventures. “Structuring an organization
concerns the structuring of human experience. It concerns how we ourselves have been structured to integrate experience,
because our organizations are an extension of how each of us functions as individuals.”
Oper looks at him, a little shocked. “Are you saying that a business organization should work like a single human being?
How is that possible? Even if we reach a common accord, we are not all of one mind.”
“Are you sure that a human being is of one mind?”
“That’s the common belief. Well, isn’t it?” He looks at Perse as if it must be so.
Perse looks to his assistant. “Persist has a lot of background in clinical psychology and is probably better qualified to answer
the question. I know she has some thoughts on this. Would you mind, Persist?”
Persist sifts through some papers in a file in front of her, then thinks better of it and closes the file. “I’ll try. I’m not sure this all
comes from a psychology background. A lot of things started coming together for me when I came here to work. Perhaps I’m
more indebted to the intuition of our President. When I made contact with these organizational principles, I began to make
sense of important fundamental studies that I hadn’t understood the full significance of before. I hadn’t fully grasped the fact
that I was trying to fathom how experience is organized. I thought there were physical causes for experience, like there may be
physical causes for a car accident. It has finally dawned upon me that there is a great deal of psychological evidence in support
of there being three dimensions to the integration of human experience.”
“So then you mean that the integration of human experience is analogous to the way that business organizations integrate
experience?” Oper is still very puzzled. He is ignoring the food.
“Yes,” says Persist, pausing to finish a mouthful. “Let me elaborate a little. Early histological studies on the structure of the
human brain established that the limb, or extremities of the cerebral hemispheres, that are folded in around the brain stem, are
similar in structure to the brains of the reptiles and lower mammals. Later it was noticed that these primitive brains in man
correspond to the brains of the reptile and the lower mammal in our evolutionary history. To put it more concretely, the brains of
the crocodile and the horse are represented in the human brain, and they are intimately associated with the autonomic nervous
system which fuels our emotions. This functionally integrated limbic system, as it is called, is very ancient, going back several
hundred millions of years to the development of the reptiles. This was modified by the advent of the lower mammals, but then,
overlying these primitive brains, came the explosive development of the cerebral hemispheres associated with intelligence in
the higher mammals and especially in man. This new brain is not colored in its function with emotional experience, relating
more directly to external inputs.
The interesting thing is that there seems to be no direct biological controls by this huge new intellectual brain over the
primitive emotional brain, yet they are constrained to live in the same house together. You might say that we have acquired the
intellectual capacity to build atomic bombs and send rockets to the moon, but it is harnessed to the emotional capacity of a
crocodile and a horse.”
For a moment everyone looks at Persist, as her words sink in. Even Sal’s eyes come unglued from the wall hangings. Then
he laughs his loudest equestrian laugh. Des, Fin, the Marks and Con look a little stunned. Oper slaps the table. “What are you
saying? That we think like a human and feel like a crocodile?”
“At first sight this assessment seems to be in fair agreement with humanity’s social failings, don’t you think Oper? Our history
of violence and genocidal practices for thousands of years leaves little to be proud of. Our intellectual capabilities have a strong
tendency to become subverted to the service of our basest animal desires.”
Oper’s eyes are riveted on Persist. “You say at first sight. Is there another way to see it?”
“There’s just more to the story. About thirty years ago there was some important research carried out on epileptic patients
who had undergone surgical section of the corpus callosum.”
“The corpus what? Can you use simpler language?”
“Sorry. It’s just a huge nerve bundle that interconnects the right and left halves of the cerebral hemispheres. It was known
from animal experiments that no obvious change was to be expected in the patients’ behavior if this was cut in two, except that
their severe epileptic conditions should be markedly improved.”
“Why is that? Has this corpus whatever something to do with epilepsy?”
“Not directly. It was just hoped that the focus of epileptic seizures would be unable to transmit throughout the brain if the
corpus callosum was severed.”
“So they actually cut the brain in two pieces on a hope?”
“It may sound a little drastic, but there was sound evidence that it would likely do more good than harm. This proved to be the
case, however some curious results became apparent from careful testing. A split screen was set up, such that pictures could
be flashed onto either half of the screen from behind. With the patient looking at the center of the screen, a picture flashed on
the left screen for a tenth of a second would only register on the right brain, and vice versa.”
“You mean each eye saw one half of the screen?” Oper asks, all ears, still ignoring his food.
“Not quite. The left half of each eye saw the left screen and the left halves of both eyes project to the right hemisphere, and
vice versa.”
“So what happened?”
“When a picture of an object, say a pen, was flashed on the left screen, and the person was asked what they saw, they couldn’
t answer correctly. They might say they didn’t see anything, or just a flash of light. But then when they were asked to pick out the
object by touch, from one of a number of articles behind the screen, the left hand could do it correctly. The left hand is connected
to the right brain, and the right brain obviously saw what was flashed on the screen. But it could not answer verbally because it
had no ability to speak. It could not utter one word. However, if the picture was flashed on the right screen, the left hand could
not identify the article, as before. But then if the person was asked what it was, they would immediately say it was a pen. The left
brain saw and it had control of speech, but not control of the left hand.”
“What do you mean? Are you saying that because these people had split brains that they had two minds?” Oper is looking
confused. So are you. You have heard all the talk about right and left brain thinking, but you hadn’t realized that these split brain
experiments were so definitive.
“Under normal conditions both sides of their brains are exposed to identical sensory input, but under the conditions of the
test, each half of their brain did indeed function as a separate mind with a separate memory track.”
Oper shakes his head slowly. “But that means that each hemisphere functions separately all of the time. It is just that usually
the split brains use the same input. Are these people different? From us, I mean?”
Persist finishes up her beef and noodles. “No. We are all similar in this respect.”
“And the right brain cannot speak?”
“Generally not, in right handed people. In left handed people the role of the hemispheres is usually reversed. And a variety of
anomolies are possible.”
“So what does the right brain do, if it can’t speak?”
“It generally excels at abstract thought, spatio-temporal organization, appreciation of music, art, aesthetic values, the spiritual
sense, that sort of thing. You might say the right brain is the intuitive brain. On the other hand, the left brain excels at the
expression of technique. And technique is generally associated in some way with language. We learn how to do things through
language. This includes sciences of all kinds. The left brain is technological as opposed to intuitive. It is as if the right intuitive
brain has been assigned the task of abstract idea development while the left brain is concerned with implementation.” Persist
opens her file and extracts a diagram of the nervous system’s correspondence to the six activities. She puts it up on the screen.
See Figure 21-1.
Des puts down his chop sticks, examines the drawing carefully and speaks up. “So in our company the right hemisphere
corresponds to the design activity, that is, developing the abstract idea of a house, as opposed to actually building it. Building it
is Con’s department, corresponding to the left hemisphere commitment dimension.”
“Where does that leave me?” Oper says. “What about operating a hotel as opposed to designing and building it?”
“Operation and Construction are represented as parallel activities in the organization structure,” Persist explains. “But you
also have a major Maintenance activity which is associated with idea development. In this sense Maintenance must be
consistent with Design and Construction taken together. The idea, once constructed, must be maintained in operational order.
The focus is mercurial. It keeps shifting with the context. The point is that there are always three dimensions involved in human
activity, and these have their analogs in corporate activity. There is a common accord between them.”
“What is the polar partner of idea development then? What funds the intuition?” Des asks.
“The resources of memory,” Persist replies, quite sure of herself. “I don’t mean just the memory of specific events frozen in
time. I mean the memory of how things work in certain circumstances. An element of memory is like an element of technique
contained within the idea recalled. There is an intuitive insight into the dynamics of the creative process that has a polar
relationship to the development of new ideas.”
“So the potential dimension of a person is related to their intuitive grasp of the creative process.” Des leans back looking at
the ceiling. “I guess that makes sense.”
Con has been staring at a wall hanging of yang and yin chasing themselves in a circle, surrounded by the hexagrams. “How
about the polar partner of explicit technique? What does the human commitment dimension relate to?” he asks. “That concerns
my department.”
“And mine,” says Persist. “The other polar partner of the commitment dimension is social organization. That’s why language
is dominant in the left hemisphere. Language links us to our social organization, which is the analog of the personnel function.
We all must relate to our social structures in some way, however confused they may sometimes be. They are difficult to
improve, perhaps partly because we usually aren’t aware of how all this fits together. But now we have a way to come to a
common accord within the context of a company.”
Oper is rubbing his head. “Two minds! Can one person have two minds?”
“Not two, three,” Persist replies. “You’re forgetting the ancient emotional mind.”
“Three! Horrors! Of course. The performance dimension.”
“Sales and Marketing,” Sal says, looking up from his food with a new air of sobriety. For a moment you entertain a hope that
some of this is sinking in at last. Then he adds with a laugh, “I guess that me and the Marks brothers are the primitive part of
the brain, right?” This time he draws a few snickers as he lowers his head to dig in again. He is a slurpy eater.
“Primitive in one respect,” Persist acknowledges, “insofar as current behavior must be historically integrated. But keep in
mind that the marketing activity leads a business organization, steers it. It identifies need in the market place consistent with
corporate capabilities. It opens doors to the future. Likewise in a human individual the marketing activity is one’s emotive
perception of need, moderated by one’s ability to respond to it.”
Sal smacks his lips. “If you feel hunger and you have food, you eat. Right?” he says. “And so with all the other appetites.” He
rubs his hands together and grins at Persist.
“There is a catch,” she says.
“What catch?”
“It is this matter of historic integration. If we simply glut ourselves without regard for the consequences, history will not use us
well.”
Sal looks away with a belch. He is being intentionally boorish. “What’s past is water under the bridge. We don’t live in the
past. We live now. How can history use us badly?”
Persist studies the human animal facing her, wondering who she is talking to. “We are products of the past in anticipation of
the future. ‘Now’the presentis the integration of history embracing past and future. If we glut on anything we get sick. We
have not been historically conditioned to handle excess. There is a balance involved in all this, something to be given for
everything received.”
“In business, yes. Everything has a price. But so long as people have the money to buy, there is nothing to stop them.” He
smacks his lips again and starts picking his teeth.
“There is another currency of exchange that determines the performance dimension in the human equation,” she says.
“Only money. It all comes down to money. If you’ve got enough money you can buy anything that you want or need.”
“You can’t always buy the kind of energy that you need or want. This is a different medium of exchange.”
“Energy? We’re not talking about the petroleum authority. What do you mean, energy?” Sal enjoys talking down to more junior
employees, even if they are female. He is still picking his teeth, but does cover his mouth with his other hand.
Persist seems to see through him. “I’m talking about the primitive emotional brain, how it works. The medium of exchange is
emotive energy. This is what fuels the mentation process. It tends to color or determine everything that we do according to our
wants. But we don’t always entertain the right emotive energies. We don’t always make an appropriate selection of perceived
needs. Then the other two brains have a difficult time of it. Even if the right brain finds the potential to develop the idea, and the
left brain is able to make a commitment, the outcome may not be consistent with the history of the individual. The personal
enterprise may falter because of an inability to historically integrate the experience.”
“Sort of like a company that diversifies the wrong way, you mean.” Sal suddenly seems anxious to keep the conversation
away from the contradictions in his personal life.
“That’s one side of it,” Persist smiles. “A garage mechanic isn’t likely to successfully expand into the candy business, just
because he may want to.”
“Well I’m going to stick with what I know. Selling.” Sal is making progress.
You are impressed with Persist, with her knowledge and her ability to use it sensibly. She has answered some of the
questions in your mind and raised others. You set them aside for the moment and return instead to the question of common
accord in a business enterprise. The three dimensions to the integration of human experience make the idea of common
accord all the more attractive, almost tantalizingly so. You are not sure how to describe it.
“This discussion raises another possibility in a company such as ours,” you begin hesitantly. “We agree, I think, that common
accord does not mean universal agreement. In fact we can each be in accord with that thought while holding diverse opinions
about it. But now we have seen that there is a substrate to the organization of human experience itself that is consistent with the
organization of a company. This carries with it remarkable implications. A human being can be in accord with a business. I don’
t mean just one human being, as has sometimes been the case where the owner or manager of a company uses it as an
extension of himself, at the personal expense of everyone else involved. I mean that every employee in a company can be in
accord with its organization.”
Sal punches his fist in the air. “Teamwork!”
“Not teamwork, Sal. Not blind identification with the prevailing opinion. And not selling your soul to the company stores.
Something much better. Each employee, from the top to the bottom of the company, can be in accord with how it is organized,
and thus be in mutual accord with one another. Even while they may mutually disagree on any number of issues, everyone’s
actions will be mutually complementary toward a common result. Disagreements will not impact the quality of the company’s
product or the efficiency of the organization. People can believe whatever they want. They can live by their own conscience
without being coerced to toe some executive’s idea of the ‘company line’.”
“Well I’m very glad that we don’t have to agree with you on that, Pres.” Sal is feeling his oats, as if he has been given license
to say whatever he wants to the boss.
You look him steadily in the eye. “I may not be receptive to your disagreements either, and I may still promote ideas whether
you agree with them or not. The fact is that the majority of your opinions have little to do with the performance of the company.
You have a job to do, the same as the rest of us, and you will be expected to do it. By everyone. The whole organization is
dependent upon everyone in it. Each person must be committed to the performance of their own job.”
“Are you talking about transparency?” Perse asks. “Are you pointing out again that the three dimensions render the
organization transparent from top to bottom? From the beginning you have stressed that everyone should see their part in
relation to the whole, so that they can know their responsibility and their worth to the organization.”
“That’s part of it, of course. But I am searching for another word, to describe how each person’s independent actions
enhance those of others, like notes played together on a musical instrument. If the notes are chosen at random, without
knowing anything about music, they will be in discord. But if one understands musical composition, the notes will be in
harmony. They will be in mutual accord. It is a matter of how the notes are organized, one with respect to another, just as it is a
matter of how the activities of a company are organized, one with respect to another.”
“Resonance,” Mark I interjects.
“What’s that?”
“Resonance,” he repeats. “Maybe the word you are looking for is resonance.”
“Resonance! That’s it. That’s the right word.”
“You are surely not suggesting that we should all be musicians,” Sal says. “People have been preaching about working in
harmony since the world began. What has it all accomplished? Nothing.”
“But this isn’t preaching. Words won’t make people get in step. Words won’t convince everyone to march in somebody’s
army. The point here is that we don’t have to agree to act in accord. That’s the ticket. By structuring an organization so that
everyone is in a position of accord, it has resonance, no matter what the tune or who is playing it, or how.”
Oper is rubbing his forehead again. “You mean that people begin to feel the benefit of the efforts of others?”
“Yes. And they begin to feel the benefit of their own efforts to others. The organization begins to resonate. Everyone in it
begins to resonate. And it’s not a big deal, that’s the secret. There is no need for hype, no nagging to get along, no need to
jump on a band wagon. People are not mindlessly expected to play a part in someone else’s marching song. Resonance just
happens, that’s all. It’s ordinary. It happens because that is the way that experience is integrated. The organization is a coherent
whole. People not only know their part in relation to the whole, they feel it. They are one. They are a coherent whole because the
organization is a coherent whole. They are at one with the organization. No amount of preaching can make people believe it.
They don’t have to believe it. They feel it in their performance dimension. Their primitive mind knows, and their potential and
their commitment is enhanced accordingly.”
“That’s quite a statement,” Oper remarks, blinking his eyes. “You make it sound like the salvation to everyone’s problems.”
“Of course it’s not. People still have to work to solve their problems. The tragic thing is that the way organizations are currently
structured, there is often no solution to people’s problems, no matter how hard they work at them. People rarely find satisfaction
in their jobs these days. And it isn’t the work that gets people down; it’s the discordant political forces. It’s the needless
bureaucracy that thwarts every move. It is the mind set that goes with forever striving for political control, yet if control is achieved
it is at the expense of others in the organization. It is the back stabbing that has everyone looking over their shoulder instead of
doing their jobs. It is this senseless conflict that is structured in, just as surely as if you cross wired a car. It is the wasted lives
and talents tossed on the rubbish heap of frustrated ideas. The structure of the organization determines the plot in this grizzly
scene. Without insight into the three dimensions everyone is left clawing blind for a bit of integrity. But a properly structured
organization concerns the very nature of integrity. It concerns how experience is integrated.”
“Integrity concerns the integration of experience? I had never thought of it that way,” says your old friend Mark I.
Des speaks up. “I never realized that you were such a philosopher Pres. Can we solve the age old struggles for truth, beauty,
goodness and unity within the context of a business organization?”
You ponder a moment. “I don’t think that this is for me to say. But we can structure our organization so that the struggle for
redeeming human values is not thwarted from the outset by discordant forces that are just as surely detrimental to the success
of the business. We can provide a place where creative and responsible people can thrive.”
“Are you suggesting that business organizations are usually detrimental to people’s lives?” Is Des trying to trip you up?
“Not intentionally, but very often they are. Without insight into the three dimensions, we become slaves of blind forces that can
wreak havoc with people’s lives to no useful end. And when people are fighting for their political and social survival they don’t
focus on wider issues of importance to everyone.”
“You mean in terms of equitable working conditions within the organization?”
“That and a lot more. Take a look at the world around us. It is threatened on every front by our industry: global pollution,
intractable social problems, mounting population pressures in a threatening world that is increasingly bereft of meaning. I
shouldn’t need to elaborate.”
Con’s eyes have drifted back to the yang and yin wall hanging. He seems to have drifted off to the celestial realms of the
Gods. He has Chinese blood. “We have heard how the integration of human experience can be in accord with how we structure
our organizations to function,” he says thoughtfully. “And we have heard how this accord can give rise to resonance. It seems
that insight into the three dimensions can bring yang and yin into a healthy balance, like the hexagrams of the I Ching.”
“I’ve been wondering too,” says Des, exploring a similar theme. “Our potential dimension depends upon intuitive insight into
the structural dynamics of the creative process. But our commitment is through our social structures, while this whole
mentation process is fueled by emotive energies from our ancestral roots in the biosphere.”
“Ancestral roots in the biosphere?” Sal is at sea.
“The primitive part of the brain. You know, the crocodile and the horse.”
“Well why don’t you just say so.”
“The thing is that the structure of the creative process must also dictate the evolutionary patterns that emerge in the
biosphere, including the fact that the integration of human experience requires insight into the three dimensions. The three
dimensions must themselves be a reflection of how the creative process is structured.”
“Well so what?” says Sal, not comprehending.
“So if we have an insight into the creative process, that insight transcends the whole of creation, the whole of history.”
“Our own birth and death? Impossible!” says Oper, blinking again. “That would place us apart from the whole of creation,
outside our own roots in the biosphere.”
Des looks at the ceiling again, as if to make sure it is still there. “That would seem to be so. Isn’t that strange? Outside and
inside both. Apart from creation even while we are part of it.”
Although you are a Theravada Buddhist, without the Taoist background, you can see the correspondence between the
dhamma and the tao. And you know that this is not the private property of any religion. It concerns the nature of reality. “Perhaps
that is the significance of non-attachment. Can the whole creative process be transparent?”
A GENERAL DISCUSSION
Organization. It is a strange word. It means different things in different contexts.
“How so?” you might say. “The context itself is organized in some way. So how can the word mean different things.
Organization is organization.”
“What about chaos then? Is random order a form of organization?”
You think for a moment to be sure of your answer. “Well, chaos certainly needs an observer to be identified as such.” You are
confident that you have found a handle on the question. “And it can only be known as such in relation to order. By its nature,
chaos must be one face of some kind of order. Otherwise we would not be able to identify it.”
“Hmmm. Is that really so? Maybe the only order is chaos, and apparent orders that may emerge within it from time to time are
transient phenomena, a mere passing expression of chaos.”
You look at me like I was the accused in the prisoner’s dock. “Why that’s utterly absurd. You are being less than honest.”
“Me? Less than honest?” I’m a little annoyed.
“Yes, you. There are ordered assumptions implicit in your statement that render it so much double talk.”
“Double talk is it?! How so?”
“Well examine the statement with just a little impartiality. Can’t you see that saying ‘from time to time’ implies a sequential
order of time that is fundamental even to chaos? Can’t you see that identifying transient phenomena implies an observer with a
sufficiently ordered mind and sensory apparatus to perceive events in a spatial order of things?”
“Yes. I suppose I see what you mean. A good point. But then perhaps the ordered mind and sensory apparatus are
themselves just a transient expression of chaos, an accidental order that will ultimately pass into oblivion along with the
perception of the passing.”
You squint at me through your reading glasses. “You really are a case. Now you are saying that chaos is oblivion. Can’t you
see that? And oblivion it must be if it is the only order. Random order is a homogeneous annihilation without ordered
phenomena. But then we wouldn’t be around to worry each other about it, would we?!”
“I suppose not.”
“Of course not! A totally random order is not consistent with the ordered universe that we see around us. Such chaos as may
exist is but one aspect of the order that sustains the whole of the universe.”
“And who is to say that this universe is real? There is nothing permanent about it. Why it is changing every instant, mere
passing episodes in a dream. The whole thing is no more than an illusion.”
“Why that rubbish is just more double talk.” You shake your head as if to rearrange your thoughts. “You really are a master at
it. Now you are trying to say that both order and chaos are an illusion and that nothing is real. But that view must then itself be
an illusion, and yet you maintain that it alone is real? Why, you are trying to say that the only reality is illusion. It is a contradiction
in terms. Words lose their meaning, my friend.”
“My point exactly.” I give you a big smile to rub the point in. “Unless you want to suggest that there is some permanence to
meaning that can survive the chaotic transience of events.”
“Of course there is. There must be. Unless we are all totally mad, we must believe that.”
“Aha. But then you must believe that meaning inheres in an order that determines the nature of transience, and not in
transient events themselves.”
“What’s that? What fool notion are you trying to slip past me now?”
“It is simple enough. You believe that meaning derives from an order that transcends space and time. This order cannot be
identified as confined in space and time.”
A suspicious expression invades your face. “Of course it can be identified. If I understand your meaning I see you before me.
Your meaning is implicit in your person and the words that come out of your mouth!”
“Not if I walk away, it’s not. Does the meaning in my words walk away with me?”
“Let’s not be ridiculous. I have a memory of course. And the meaning of your words is associated with my memory of you.”
“But the event itself is gone, no longer a reality. Neither I nor your memory of me determines the nature of meaning. I am not a
permanent resident of your mind. And what are words but uttered sounds that have already passed. Where is the meaning in
sounds?”
“You can’t be serious. Why it is the meaning we have learned to associate with them. We learn spoken language from the crib
and the sand box. It is passed on from generation to generation. It is part of our culture, part of our collective experience.”
“So far so good. In other words, you believe that meaning is determined by an order that transcends transient events in space
and time, just as I said.”
“Wait just a minute! You’re twisting things around. I didn’t say that.”
“Is that so! You said language was passed on from generation to generation. Surely this passing on from one generation to
the next is a transient event, yet the meaning implicit in language is universally understood by everyone. Now how is this
universal meaning possible if there is no common order implicit in experience that transcends the perpetual passing of
events?”
“That’s a very good question. But let me twist things around for a change. How is universal meaning possible if there is such
an order as you suggest?”
“That’s a fair question also. This order that transcends the passing of events also determines the organization of events, so
that although events may be different in space and time, they are all organized in a similar way. It is precisely this characteristic
of experience that allows us to learn from experience and also to benefit from the experience of others.”
“What’s that got to do with language?”
“How else could we learn language from parents and friends?”
“Now you are contradicting yourself again. You said at the outset that organization means different things in different contexts.
Now you are saying that everything is organized in a similar way. You can’t make a single straight statement.”
“There is no contradiction in what I said and both statements are straight.”
“What?” There is a puzzle etched in your intelligent face, now a caricature of itself. “Things are both the same and different?
There’s no contradiction in that?”
“Not if you allow of hierarchies in experience. A tree may have many different branches, but they are all the same tree. And
there may be many different trees of the same kind. And there may be many different kinds of trees, but they are all trees. And
trees are just one kind of plant.”
“And plants are just one kind of life, etceteras. You are talking about groups and classes, not hierarchies, my friend.” You toss
me an intimidating look of disgust. “These are just distinctions of kind made convenient by language. You are twisting things
around again.”
“Not so! There is an ordered hierarchy hidden in the classification of all life forms that is essential to how they evolve and
grow, irrespective of the diversity of species. In fact it is more general than that. The organization of the whole of experience is
dependent upon a common hierarchy that is implicit in the way phenomena evolve.”
“Now that’s a mouthful!” You throw your head back and laugh. “You’ve bitten off more than you can chew this time. Why if that’
s true there must be some evidence in experience. In fact there must be some historical evidence in human experience as to
how this experience itself is organized.”
“In human experience?”
“Yes. There must be specific evidence in human experience.”
“So you want to confine the discussion to human experience?”
“Are you not talking about how we humans and our societies evolve?”
“Among other things, yes.”
“And you maintain that there is historical evidence in human experience as to how experience itself is organized and evolves?”
“There is evidence, of course.”
“Then would you be kind enough to point it out.”
I overlook the sarcasm in your tone. “I will make an attempt. But you must try to examine the facts very carefully, with as much
fairness as you can muster.”
CHAPTER 6
THE NATION CITY
Many functions are not available in the country town. There is generally no need of them, or else they involve large numbers of
people. For instance, there are no research organizations, no laboratories, no universities or institutions of specialized
education. There are also no consultant firms, such as architects, consulting engineers, management consultants and the like.
There are no heavy industries, no steel plants or rolling mills, no automobile assembly plants, no foundries, no refineries or
petrochemical plants. There are no stock brokers, no major financial institutions, no department stores, no television or radio
stations. These are all functions of a nation city providing for needs on a national scale.
You are sitting at a conference table with your senior managers, in offices in the City of Chonburi, about one hundred and fifty
kilometers east of Bangkok. You are the president of a moderately sized property development company with interests in
various cities in Thailand, especially the Eastern Seaboard Development near Chonburi.
“We have a real problem here.” You look around the table. “Has anyone got any solutions.”
Your Sales Manager shuffles some papers in front of him, a little nervously. We may call him Sal, to make it easy to
remember his job. Sal is quite a promoter. “Thirty thousand percent profit is not such a large problem,” he says. “Many
companies would like to be in our shoes. We can’t help it if land prices suddenly escalate three hundred times overnight. We
had anticipated an increase when we purchased the land.”
Of course you had inside information well in advance that the Eastern Seaboard Development project would go ahead. You
had quietly purchased five thousand rai of land, two thousand acres. You had used a number of individuals and several
subsidiary companies formed on paper for the purpose. You justified the deception in order to prevent unreasonable price
demands. The total purchasing costs were thirty million baht, a little over one million dollars. Now the current market value is
over four hundred million dollars, even more once it is subdivided, not to mention the projected value of the developments on
the land.
“We didn’t anticipate such a large increase,” you reply caustically. It was true. Land prices had suddenly soared all over the
country, when it became apparent to everyone that land was being gobbled up at a furious rate. You focus on Sal with singular
attention. “You don’t have the full picture. You should see that we are faced with having to declare huge profits as we develop,
subdivide and sell off the property. We are a public company. You must know what we will have to part with in taxes. You must
also know what will happen to our stock.”
The Sales Manager smiles. “Of course we all know what will happen to the stock. Aren’t all of us here counting on that rather
heavily? Naturally we must expect to give something to the government in order to profit.” He meets with some agreeable
glances around the table and feels more at ease.
“Can you not think ahead of padding your own pocket as quickly as you can?” You are annoyed at his cavalier attitude. “What
about tomorrow? What about the fallout from yesterday?” You look hard into his eyes. “What about the ethics of what we have
done? A few hundred families have sold us their land, thinking they had a good deal. Now the money they received will not buy
them a patch large enough to sustain them anywhere in the nation. They will join the ranks of the homeless, when they could
have been wealthy. It has happened countless times from one end of the country to the other.”
Sal squirms a bit but musters a smile. “That’s just good business.” He feels himself on the defensive again. “We saw an
opportunity and took it. Their loss is not our fault. What can we do about it? We should be thankful to have been so fortunate. It
is their bad luck and not ours.”
“But it is our bad luck. Do you want to live beside beggars? We have lost potential buyers in our own projects. Who do you
think we are developing land for? Martians?”
“A lot of farmers elsewhere didn’t sell until after the boom. Some lose. Some win. It is just a matter of luck. And we have been
lucky.”
“We are faced with profits that will leave us with a horrendous tax bill and destabilize our stock. We cannot sustain these profit
levels. As surely as our stock will soar for a couple of years, it will crash again. And when it does crash it may be at a time when
we most need to attract investment capital to finance new projects. We will be unable to. Yet here we sit now with our hands full
of money that we have to give away to government and stockholders. Why should we give exorbitant profits to strangers and
overinflate our stock when we least need to attract investment capital? We must find ways of diverting this profit to stabilize our
future position.”
Your Design Manager, Des for short, opens a file in front of him. “We can defray profits easily enough in the beginning, if we
schedule the work with that view in mind,” he points out. He is a meticulous man and has given the matter a little thought. “We
can telescope the second and third phases to increase our capital outlay on services and infrastructure to coincide with phase
one. This will aggravate the problem of excessive profit in the later phases of development, but it can buy some time to divert
profits into future projects with additional land acquisition. We can also increase our outlay on the quality and extent of
infrastructure, better common areas, roads, parks, and recreational facilities, buried rather than overhead cables, better waste
disposal, water treatment and so on. This will enhance the salability of the development as well.”
It was a constructive idea, but not nearly enough. You ask your Construction Manager, Con, if he has any suggestions.
“Yes. Certainly.” He is always the image of confidence. “We can accelerate the construction of the golf course, since this
doesn’t involve the direct sale of land, and we can drag our feet on the industrial estates. We can also accelerate the high rise
projects, move our completion schedules forward, several months ahead of possession dates promised to the customer. This
would create a temporary lag of several millions of dollars between expenditures and income. It is not a lot, but it can help, and
it would also help our public image to be ahead of schedule for a change. But I don’t think that it would be wise to telescope the
installation of services in the later phases. The roads, sewers, water mains and so on, will deteriorate more rapidly with lack of
use. It may be better to delay the later phases until their excessive profits can be offset against less profitable developments.”
“We can’t delay them,” Sal comments with detectable dislike for Con’s opinions. They don’t get along. “We already have
contractual commitments.”
“Then it may be an opportunity to diversify.”
“Diversify how?” Sal smirks.
Con leans back in his chair. “Perhaps buy some expensive property in Bangkok and build a major hotel with a shopping
complex. That could eat up three hundred million easily enough.”
...
...
The Financial Manager speaks up again. “The most effective way to avoid declaring excessive profits is to make a major
expenditure in the near future. This obviously must be in the form of some capital investment. We can purchase more land, or a
project consistent with the nature of our business to date, or we can expand and diversify in some way.”
“It is a poor time to buy land,” your Acquisitions Manager observes. “Land prices are overinflated at present. I think we are due
for a correction before a year is out. Besides, we are well placed for land for a couple of years. We moved at the right time.”
“I see,” Fin replies politely. “We could set aside a fund for future acquisitions, but we would still be faced with huge taxes. And
the size of the fund and the interest it would earn would itself be an embarrassment, unless we established it as a separate
finance or investment company of some kind.”
There are some suggestions and discussion on various kinds of diversification possible. As the meeting closes, you make
requests of each of your department managers.
“Sales. I want you to closely review your sales projections, pricing schedules, competitor’s pricing, and expected quarterly
revenues over the next three years.
“Design and Engineering. I want you to review revised development costs in light of our discussions, unit costs and projected
quarterly costs over the next three years.
“Construction. I want you to review your construction project schedules and expected progress on a quarterly basis over the
next three years. Coordinate with both Sales and Engineering and provide input on any contingency expenditures that may be
encountered.
“Personnel. I want you to come up with a workable employee benefit package with cost estimates for each employee
classification, and also projected quarterly costs for the next three years.
“Acquisitions. I want you to have a second look at possible bargains in the property market. Everything from tourist to
commercial and industrial development potential. While you’re at it keep an eye out for existing businesses that are in financial
trouble, hotels, resorts, office and shopping complexes, anything.
“Finance. I want you to come up with a plan for a tolerable pattern of projected profits and growth that is healthy for our long
term survival. Suggest general strategies by which it may be attainable, with quarterly projections for the next three years, and
annual projections beyond that for another five years.
“Keep your reports brief and to the point.”
After the meeting, you attend to some routine affairs in your office, call for your Mercedes and leave for home early. You have
been invited to another dinner meeting. It is the last thing you want to do this evening but you are obliged to go. You are tired of
the speeches, the endless small talk and empty theories on everything from TQM to Re-engineering your organization. You are
tired of chasing after a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. You already have more wealth than you know what to do with. You
have a beautiful home, a beautiful wife, three beautiful children, three beautiful cars, a beautiful boat, a beautiful second home
in the mountains. You have been cursed with too much success.
What you do not yet fully realize as you navigate through the traffic, wondering what to do about your organization, is that it is
on the verge of a major transition. At present, your most senior managers operate at a senior supervisory level in the corporate
hierarchy. They are concerned with committing the resources of land, labor, materials and operating facilities to achieve results
related to product cycles in major projects.
`For example, when the construction manager initiates a project, he must first dispatch crews to survey and grade the site,
install sewers, watermains, electricity, and roadways. Once there is reasonable access to the properties, building construction
can begin—houses, townhouses, shophouses, factories, offices, high-rise projects and so on. All of this involves a diversity of
functional skills organized into crews of specialized trades that must work in an orderly sequence. Some of the work may be
contracted out. You must employ people to schedule them accordingly, and to keep track of their time and progress, the
equipment and the materials they use. You must also employ people to inspect their work and monitor their needs and
progress. This supervisory work is different in kind from functional work. It concerns the commitment of resources to product
cycles, as opposed to their application to specific tasks. Supervisory work implicitly gives direction to functional work. In any
case, the mainstream activity in your company is construction, associated with property development. This is you main product
work.
The Design Department employs both architects and engineers, although some large projects may be designed or
engineered on a contractual basis by outside consultants, under preliminary design guidelines specified by this department.
There are also draftsmen, a scheduling function to maintain proper priorities, surveyors, cost estimators, junior engineers and
technologists preparing contract documents, material specifications and purchase requisitions, and engineering inspectors.
All of these interdependent functions are organized under the department head at the senior supervisory level. In some
companies this design activity may go under various names, such as Engineering, Planning, Product Development, Research,
and the like. They are all concerned with developing the product idea.
The Sales Manager also works at the supervisory level. Under his direction are groups of people performing various
specialized functions. There is a group of sales people who maintain direct contacts with potential buyers and who service
consummated sales accounts. In the case of commercial and industrial sales this may involve detailed coordination with other
departments for the design, construction, and financing of specialized premises in commercial complexes or industrial
estates. There is also the task of pricing projects, in the light of both project costs and market competition. There is the job of
preparing and monitoring the terms and conditions of sales contracts and leases. There must be a small scheduling group
interfacing with engineering and construction scheduling to ensure that projects can be delivered on time in accordance with
contract commitments. Of course there will also be an advertising function, and forecasting. Similar activities are involved in any
sales department.
The Financial Manager too has specialized groups performing interdependent functions. The largest of these account for
expenditures and revenues, the usual job of accounting according to established procedures and producing reports. There is
also the vital task of maintaining adequate cash flow to finance the various projects, budgeting for the lag between expenditures
and revenues through various banking and financial arrangements. There is the compilation of the annual budget from
submissions by the various departments, together with quarterly and annual stockholder’s reports. Then there is the job of
arranging various financing strategies for domestic, commercial and industrial customers. There will also be someone
delegated the task of monitoring the system of accounts and assigning account numbers. These financial tasks are familiar to
every sizable company.
At this point in the growth of your organization, the Personnel function, and the Acquisitions function, don’t qualify as full
fledged departments with an interdependent variety of functions within them. The personnel function amounts to little more than
advertising new positions, screening applicants, and their initial introduction to the company. The officer in charge also keeps
track of job classifications and employee files, assists in dealing with employee problems and so on. But he has only one
assistant. Since the remainder of the personnel function remains largely undelegated, the Personnel Officer works more
closely with you as President, than more senior department managers.
Likewise the acquisitions function does not yet amount to a full fledged Marketing operation. The supervisory direction of
property acquisition is still retained as part of your job as President. You must intuit the direction that market trends may take
and decide in what general areas to commit the company according to your assessment of available opportunities. The person
responsible for actually acquiring land functions accordingly. Although he is a senior, knowledgeable person, he works very
closely with you, essentially at a senior functional level. In these Personnel and Marketing areas you thus continue to work at a
supervisory level.
As President of the company, you have a different relationship with the other four department managers that work at a
supervisory level. They must determine how best to commit the resources at their disposal to achieve the desired results. It is
you who must balance the needs and capacities of one department against another. There are various ways that you can do
this. You can decide to expand or cut back the work force. You can purchase more construction equipment, or reduce your
inventory of equipment in favor of periodic rentals. You can introduce new techniques, ideas, and equipment. You can provide
new, better, bigger or smaller premises. You can actively seek out growth opportunities. You can concentrate more on trying to
maintain a stable size with long term security. You can also consolidate your operations with a view to reducing your size for
more efficiency in difficult times.
This kind of work takes careful reflection. It is different in essence from either functional or supervisory work. It may be called
administrative in nature and it concerns sustaining the infrastructure of the organization. There is behind it yet another kind of
work, true managerial work, that determines the nature of the whole idea of a company. It is this that you are thrust into
confrontation with as you ponder the problem of too much profit. You have suddenly been provided with an enormous capacity
to expand. The unusual circumstances in which you find yourself dictate that you must expand, and quickly. How to do this
constructively with long term benefits for the whole organization, that is your problem.
As you continue to mull over some of the possible options that present themselves, it begins to dawn on you that there are
really only six areas in the company through which activity is focused: Construction, Design, Sales, Finance, Personnel, and
Marketing. There may be other stakeholders in a company, such as suppliers and government, but you have no say in their
organization. In one disguise or another, these same six focal points of activity are there in every company of sufficient size to
warrant their independent delegation. They may change their face, but they are always there. The mainstream activity, in your
case Construction, may become manufacturing in another company, or transportation, or communications, or banking, or
whatever, and the other five partners will always tag along.
For some reason you find it strange that this should be so. Is there some underlying imperative that dictates this
organizational pattern? Is it just Social Darwinism in action, a linear advance from hunter/gather to tribal village, to country town,
to corporate structures in a nation city, all without plan or purpose, as some western thinkers would have us believe? But if
there is no plan why does this pattern always emerge? And if there is no purpose, how are we to speak of development or
progress? Are modern city dwellers more advanced human beings than the age old hill tribes? Are they better people? Are their
organizations just more complex because of their numbers? Do our organizations change our lives or the people we are?
...
CHAPTER 21
COMMON ACCORD AND RESONANCE
As the meeting wound up there was some interesting conversation under way. You decided to treat everyone to lunch so that
it might continue. You are now seated around a large table in a Chinese restaurant and everyone is having suki yaki. The
Chinese call it hwo koah, meaning fire pot.
You throw the question that has been playing in your mind open to the group. “Why is mutual accord possible, and why is it
so intimately associated with insight into three dimensions?” you ask, while dipping some shrimps and vegetables into the
boiling water for cooking. Electrically heated cooking pots have been placed on the tables for the purpose. Everyone has joined
in. You are steering the conversation a bit, but it was headed in this direction anyway, thanks to Sal’s rather overbearing
opposition to anything that suggests that he must be in agreement. He has a certain nuisance value in situations like this.
“I suppose, in the end, that it’s just a matter of having to get along and get on with the job,” says Mark II. “Everyone has to
make certain compromises in life. It only stands to reason that we all can’t have everything that we want.”
“But why should there be three dimensions involved? Why is mutual accord in a business a matter of coming to terms with
three polar relationships? Why is this an organizational imperative? There is no compromise here. Is this just an accident of
evolution? Or is there some compelling reason that this must be so?” You are faced with a round of puzzled looks. All but Sal,
who is admiring the silk wall hangings adorning the red walls.
“There is more to this matter of mutual accord than first meets the eye,” Perse ventures. “Structuring an organization
concerns the structuring of human experience. It concerns how we ourselves have been structured to integrate experience,
because our organizations are an extension of how each of us functions as individuals.”
Oper looks at him, a little shocked. “Are you saying that a business organization should work like a single human being?
How is that possible? Even if we reach a common accord, we are not all of one mind.”
“Are you sure that a human being is of one mind?”
“That’s the common belief. Well, isn’t it?” He looks at Perse as if it must be so.
Perse looks to his assistant. “Persist has a lot of background in clinical psychology and is probably better qualified to answer
the question. I know she has some thoughts on this. Would you mind, Persist?”
Persist sifts through some papers in a file in front of her, then thinks better of it and closes the file. “I’ll try. I’m not sure this all
comes from a psychology background. A lot of things started coming together for me when I came here to work. Perhaps I’m
more indebted to the intuition of our President. When I made contact with these organizational principles, I began to make
sense of important fundamental studies that I hadn’t understood the full significance of before. I hadn’t fully grasped the fact
that I was trying to fathom how experience is organized. I thought there were physical causes for experience, like there may be
physical causes for a car accident. It has finally dawned upon me that there is a great deal of psychological evidence in support
of there being three dimensions to the integration of human experience.”
“So then you mean that the integration of human experience is analogous to the way that business organizations integrate
experience?” Oper is still very puzzled. He is ignoring the food.
“Yes,” says Persist, pausing to finish a mouthful. “Let me elaborate a little. Early histological studies on the structure of the
human brain established that the limb, or extremities of the cerebral hemispheres, that are folded in around the brain stem, are
similar in structure to the brains of the reptiles and lower mammals. Later it was noticed that these primitive brains in man
correspond to the brains of the reptile and the lower mammal in our evolutionary history. To put it more concretely, the brains of
the crocodile and the horse are represented in the human brain, and they are intimately associated with the autonomic nervous
system which fuels our emotions. This functionally integrated limbic system, as it is called, is very ancient, going back several
hundred millions of years to the development of the reptiles. This was modified by the advent of the lower mammals, but then,
overlying these primitive brains, came the explosive development of the cerebral hemispheres associated with intelligence in
the higher mammals and especially in man. This new brain is not colored in its function with emotional experience, relating
more directly to external inputs.
The interesting thing is that there seems to be no direct biological controls by this huge new intellectual brain over the
primitive emotional brain, yet they are constrained to live in the same house together. You might say that we have acquired the
intellectual capacity to build atomic bombs and send rockets to the moon, but it is harnessed to the emotional capacity of a
crocodile and a horse.”
For a moment everyone looks at Persist, as her words sink in. Even Sal’s eyes come unglued from the wall hangings. Then
he laughs his loudest equestrian laugh. Des, Fin, the Marks and Con look a little stunned. Oper slaps the table. “What are you
saying? That we think like a human and feel like a crocodile?”
“At first sight this assessment seems to be in fair agreement with humanity’s social failings, don’t you think Oper? Our history
of violence and genocidal practices for thousands of years leaves little to be proud of. Our intellectual capabilities have a strong
tendency to become subverted to the service of our basest animal desires.”
Oper’s eyes are riveted on Persist. “You say at first sight. Is there another way to see it?”
“There’s just more to the story. About thirty years ago there was some important research carried out on epileptic patients
who had undergone surgical section of the corpus callosum.”
“The corpus what? Can you use simpler language?”
“Sorry. It’s just a huge nerve bundle that interconnects the right and left halves of the cerebral hemispheres. It was known
from animal experiments that no obvious change was to be expected in the patients’ behavior if this was cut in two, except that
their severe epileptic conditions should be markedly improved.”
“Why is that? Has this corpus whatever something to do with epilepsy?”
“Not directly. It was just hoped that the focus of epileptic seizures would be unable to transmit throughout the brain if the
corpus callosum was severed.”
“So they actually cut the brain in two pieces on a hope?”
“It may sound a little drastic, but there was sound evidence that it would likely do more good than harm. This proved to be the
case, however some curious results became apparent from careful testing. A split screen was set up, such that pictures could
be flashed onto either half of the screen from behind. With the patient looking at the center of the screen, a picture flashed on
the left screen for a tenth of a second would only register on the right brain, and vice versa.”
“You mean each eye saw one half of the screen?” Oper asks, all ears, still ignoring his food.
“Not quite. The left half of each eye saw the left screen and the left halves of both eyes project to the right hemisphere, and
vice versa.”
“So what happened?”
“When a picture of an object, say a pen, was flashed on the left screen, and the person was asked what they saw, they couldn’
t answer correctly. They might say they didn’t see anything, or just a flash of light. But then when they were asked to pick out the
object by touch, from one of a number of articles behind the screen, the left hand could do it correctly. The left hand is connected
to the right brain, and the right brain obviously saw what was flashed on the screen. But it could not answer verbally because it
had no ability to speak. It could not utter one word. However, if the picture was flashed on the right screen, the left hand could
not identify the article, as before. But then if the person was asked what it was, they would immediately say it was a pen. The left
brain saw and it had control of speech, but not control of the left hand.”
“What do you mean? Are you saying that because these people had split brains that they had two minds?” Oper is looking
confused. So are you. You have heard all the talk about right and left brain thinking, but you hadn’t realized that these split brain
experiments were so definitive.
“Under normal conditions both sides of their brains are exposed to identical sensory input, but under the conditions of the
test, each half of their brain did indeed function as a separate mind with a separate memory track.”
Oper shakes his head slowly. “But that means that each hemisphere functions separately all of the time. It is just that usually
the split brains use the same input. Are these people different? From us, I mean?”
Persist finishes up her beef and noodles. “No. We are all similar in this respect.”
“And the right brain cannot speak?”
“Generally not, in right handed people. In left handed people the role of the hemispheres is usually reversed. And a variety of
anomolies are possible.”
“So what does the right brain do, if it can’t speak?”
“It generally excels at abstract thought, spatio-temporal organization, appreciation of music, art, aesthetic values, the spiritual
sense, that sort of thing. You might say the right brain is the intuitive brain. On the other hand, the left brain excels at the
expression of technique. And technique is generally associated in some way with language. We learn how to do things through
language. This includes sciences of all kinds. The left brain is technological as opposed to intuitive. It is as if the right intuitive
brain has been assigned the task of abstract idea development while the left brain is concerned with implementation.” Persist
opens her file and extracts a diagram of the nervous system’s correspondence to the six activities. She puts it up on the screen.
See Figure 21-1.
Des puts down his chop sticks, examines the drawing carefully and speaks up. “So in our company the right hemisphere
corresponds to the design activity, that is, developing the abstract idea of a house, as opposed to actually building it. Building it
is Con’s department, corresponding to the left hemisphere commitment dimension.”
“Where does that leave me?” Oper says. “What about operating a hotel as opposed to designing and building it?”
“Operation and Construction are represented as parallel activities in the organization structure,” Persist explains. “But you
also have a major Maintenance activity which is associated with idea development. In this sense Maintenance must be
consistent with Design and Construction taken together. The idea, once constructed, must be maintained in operational order.
The focus is mercurial. It keeps shifting with the context. The point is that there are always three dimensions involved in human
activity, and these have their analogs in corporate activity. There is a common accord between them.”
“What is the polar partner of idea development then? What funds the intuition?” Des asks.
“The resources of memory,” Persist replies, quite sure of herself. “I don’t mean just the memory of specific events frozen in
time. I mean the memory of how things work in certain circumstances. An element of memory is like an element of technique
contained within the idea recalled. There is an intuitive insight into the dynamics of the creative process that has a polar
relationship to the development of new ideas.”
“So the potential dimension of a person is related to their intuitive grasp of the creative process.” Des leans back looking at
the ceiling. “I guess that makes sense.”
Con has been staring at a wall hanging of yang and yin chasing themselves in a circle, surrounded by the hexagrams. “How
about the polar partner of explicit technique? What does the human commitment dimension relate to?” he asks. “That concerns
my department.”
“And mine,” says Persist. “The other polar partner of the commitment dimension is social organization. That’s why language
is dominant in the left hemisphere. Language links us to our social organization, which is the analog of the personnel function.
We all must relate to our social structures in some way, however confused they may sometimes be. They are difficult to
improve, perhaps partly because we usually aren’t aware of how all this fits together. But now we have a way to come to a
common accord within the context of a company.”
Oper is rubbing his head. “Two minds! Can one person have two minds?”
“Not two, three,” Persist replies. “You’re forgetting the ancient emotional mind.”
“Three! Horrors! Of course. The performance dimension.”
“Sales and Marketing,” Sal says, looking up from his food with a new air of sobriety. For a moment you entertain a hope that
some of this is sinking in at last. Then he adds with a laugh, “I guess that me and the Marks brothers are the primitive part of
the brain, right?” This time he draws a few snickers as he lowers his head to dig in again. He is a slurpy eater.
“Primitive in one respect,” Persist acknowledges, “insofar as current behavior must be historically integrated. But keep in
mind that the marketing activity leads a business organization, steers it. It identifies need in the market place consistent with
corporate capabilities. It opens doors to the future. Likewise in a human individual the marketing activity is one’s emotive
perception of need, moderated by one’s ability to respond to it.”
Sal smacks his lips. “If you feel hunger and you have food, you eat. Right?” he says. “And so with all the other appetites.” He
rubs his hands together and grins at Persist.
“There is a catch,” she says.
“What catch?”
“It is this matter of historic integration. If we simply glut ourselves without regard for the consequences, history will not use us
well.”
Sal looks away with a belch. He is being intentionally boorish. “What’s past is water under the bridge. We don’t live in the
past. We live now. How can history use us badly?”
Persist studies the human animal facing her, wondering who she is talking to. “We are products of the past in anticipation of
the future. ‘Now’the presentis the integration of history embracing past and future. If we glut on anything we get sick. We
have not been historically conditioned to handle excess. There is a balance involved in all this, something to be given for
everything received.”
“In business, yes. Everything has a price. But so long as people have the money to buy, there is nothing to stop them.” He
smacks his lips again and starts picking his teeth.
“There is another currency of exchange that determines the performance dimension in the human equation,” she says.
“Only money. It all comes down to money. If you’ve got enough money you can buy anything that you want or need.”
“You can’t always buy the kind of energy that you need or want. This is a different medium of exchange.”
“Energy? We’re not talking about the petroleum authority. What do you mean, energy?” Sal enjoys talking down to more junior
employees, even if they are female. He is still picking his teeth, but does cover his mouth with his other hand.
Persist seems to see through him. “I’m talking about the primitive emotional brain, how it works. The medium of exchange is
emotive energy. This is what fuels the mentation process. It tends to color or determine everything that we do according to our
wants. But we don’t always entertain the right emotive energies. We don’t always make an appropriate selection of perceived
needs. Then the other two brains have a difficult time of it. Even if the right brain finds the potential to develop the idea, and the
left brain is able to make a commitment, the outcome may not be consistent with the history of the individual. The personal
enterprise may falter because of an inability to historically integrate the experience.”
“Sort of like a company that diversifies the wrong way, you mean.” Sal suddenly seems anxious to keep the conversation
away from the contradictions in his personal life.
“That’s one side of it,” Persist smiles. “A garage mechanic isn’t likely to successfully expand into the candy business, just
because he may want to.”
“Well I’m going to stick with what I know. Selling.” Sal is making progress.
You are impressed with Persist, with her knowledge and her ability to use it sensibly. She has answered some of the
questions in your mind and raised others. You set them aside for the moment and return instead to the question of common
accord in a business enterprise. The three dimensions to the integration of human experience make the idea of common
accord all the more attractive, almost tantalizingly so. You are not sure how to describe it.
“This discussion raises another possibility in a company such as ours,” you begin hesitantly. “We agree, I think, that common
accord does not mean universal agreement. In fact we can each be in accord with that thought while holding diverse opinions
about it. But now we have seen that there is a substrate to the organization of human experience itself that is consistent with the
organization of a company. This carries with it remarkable implications. A human being can be in accord with a business. I don’
t mean just one human being, as has sometimes been the case where the owner or manager of a company uses it as an
extension of himself, at the personal expense of everyone else involved. I mean that every employee in a company can be in
accord with its organization.”
Sal punches his fist in the air. “Teamwork!”
“Not teamwork, Sal. Not blind identification with the prevailing opinion. And not selling your soul to the company stores.
Something much better. Each employee, from the top to the bottom of the company, can be in accord with how it is organized,
and thus be in mutual accord with one another. Even while they may mutually disagree on any number of issues, everyone’s
actions will be mutually complementary toward a common result. Disagreements will not impact the quality of the company’s
product or the efficiency of the organization. People can believe whatever they want. They can live by their own conscience
without being coerced to toe some executive’s idea of the ‘company line’.”
“Well I’m very glad that we don’t have to agree with you on that, Pres.” Sal is feeling his oats, as if he has been given license
to say whatever he wants to the boss.
You look him steadily in the eye. “I may not be receptive to your disagreements either, and I may still promote ideas whether
you agree with them or not. The fact is that the majority of your opinions have little to do with the performance of the company.
You have a job to do, the same as the rest of us, and you will be expected to do it. By everyone. The whole organization is
dependent upon everyone in it. Each person must be committed to the performance of their own job.”
“Are you talking about transparency?” Perse asks. “Are you pointing out again that the three dimensions render the
organization transparent from top to bottom? From the beginning you have stressed that everyone should see their part in
relation to the whole, so that they can know their responsibility and their worth to the organization.”
“That’s part of it, of course. But I am searching for another word, to describe how each person’s independent actions
enhance those of others, like notes played together on a musical instrument. If the notes are chosen at random, without
knowing anything about music, they will be in discord. But if one understands musical composition, the notes will be in
harmony. They will be in mutual accord. It is a matter of how the notes are organized, one with respect to another, just as it is a
matter of how the activities of a company are organized, one with respect to another.”
“Resonance,” Mark I interjects.
“What’s that?”
“Resonance,” he repeats. “Maybe the word you are looking for is resonance.”
“Resonance! That’s it. That’s the right word.”
“You are surely not suggesting that we should all be musicians,” Sal says. “People have been preaching about working in
harmony since the world began. What has it all accomplished? Nothing.”
“But this isn’t preaching. Words won’t make people get in step. Words won’t convince everyone to march in somebody’s
army. The point here is that we don’t have to agree to act in accord. That’s the ticket. By structuring an organization so that
everyone is in a position of accord, it has resonance, no matter what the tune or who is playing it, or how.”
Oper is rubbing his forehead again. “You mean that people begin to feel the benefit of the efforts of others?”
“Yes. And they begin to feel the benefit of their own efforts to others. The organization begins to resonate. Everyone in it
begins to resonate. And it’s not a big deal, that’s the secret. There is no need for hype, no nagging to get along, no need to
jump on a band wagon. People are not mindlessly expected to play a part in someone else’s marching song. Resonance just
happens, that’s all. It’s ordinary. It happens because that is the way that experience is integrated. The organization is a coherent
whole. People not only know their part in relation to the whole, they feel it. They are one. They are a coherent whole because the
organization is a coherent whole. They are at one with the organization. No amount of preaching can make people believe it.
They don’t have to believe it. They feel it in their performance dimension. Their primitive mind knows, and their potential and
their commitment is enhanced accordingly.”
“That’s quite a statement,” Oper remarks, blinking his eyes. “You make it sound like the salvation to everyone’s problems.”
“Of course it’s not. People still have to work to solve their problems. The tragic thing is that the way organizations are currently
structured, there is often no solution to people’s problems, no matter how hard they work at them. People rarely find satisfaction
in their jobs these days. And it isn’t the work that gets people down; it’s the discordant political forces. It’s the needless
bureaucracy that thwarts every move. It is the mind set that goes with forever striving for political control, yet if control is achieved
it is at the expense of others in the organization. It is the back stabbing that has everyone looking over their shoulder instead of
doing their jobs. It is this senseless conflict that is structured in, just as surely as if you cross wired a car. It is the wasted lives
and talents tossed on the rubbish heap of frustrated ideas. The structure of the organization determines the plot in this grizzly
scene. Without insight into the three dimensions everyone is left clawing blind for a bit of integrity. But a properly structured
organization concerns the very nature of integrity. It concerns how experience is integrated.”
“Integrity concerns the integration of experience? I had never thought of it that way,” says your old friend Mark I.
Des speaks up. “I never realized that you were such a philosopher Pres. Can we solve the age old struggles for truth, beauty,
goodness and unity within the context of a business organization?”
You ponder a moment. “I don’t think that this is for me to say. But we can structure our organization so that the struggle for
redeeming human values is not thwarted from the outset by discordant forces that are just as surely detrimental to the success
of the business. We can provide a place where creative and responsible people can thrive.”
“Are you suggesting that business organizations are usually detrimental to people’s lives?” Is Des trying to trip you up?
“Not intentionally, but very often they are. Without insight into the three dimensions, we become slaves of blind forces that can
wreak havoc with people’s lives to no useful end. And when people are fighting for their political and social survival they don’t
focus on wider issues of importance to everyone.”
“You mean in terms of equitable working conditions within the organization?”
“That and a lot more. Take a look at the world around us. It is threatened on every front by our industry: global pollution,
intractable social problems, mounting population pressures in a threatening world that is increasingly bereft of meaning. I
shouldn’t need to elaborate.”
Con’s eyes have drifted back to the yang and yin wall hanging. He seems to have drifted off to the celestial realms of the
Gods. He has Chinese blood. “We have heard how the integration of human experience can be in accord with how we structure
our organizations to function,” he says thoughtfully. “And we have heard how this accord can give rise to resonance. It seems
that insight into the three dimensions can bring yang and yin into a healthy balance, like the hexagrams of the I Ching.”
“I’ve been wondering too,” says Des, exploring a similar theme. “Our potential dimension depends upon intuitive insight into
the structural dynamics of the creative process. But our commitment is through our social structures, while this whole
mentation process is fueled by emotive energies from our ancestral roots in the biosphere.”
“Ancestral roots in the biosphere?” Sal is at sea.
“The primitive part of the brain. You know, the crocodile and the horse.”
“Well why don’t you just say so.”
“The thing is that the structure of the creative process must also dictate the evolutionary patterns that emerge in the
biosphere, including the fact that the integration of human experience requires insight into the three dimensions. The three
dimensions must themselves be a reflection of how the creative process is structured.”
“Well so what?” says Sal, not comprehending.
“So if we have an insight into the creative process, that insight transcends the whole of creation, the whole of history.”
“Our own birth and death? Impossible!” says Oper, blinking again. “That would place us apart from the whole of creation,
outside our own roots in the biosphere.”
Des looks at the ceiling again, as if to make sure it is still there. “That would seem to be so. Isn’t that strange? Outside and
inside both. Apart from creation even while we are part of it.”
Although you are a Theravada Buddhist, without the Taoist background, you can see the correspondence between the
dhamma and the tao. And you know that this is not the private property of any religion. It concerns the nature of reality. “Perhaps
that is the significance of non-attachment. Can the whole creative process be transparent?”
Enlightened Management
