Whyte urges us to stop the idolatory of figures like Jack Welch or Bill Gates and put our energies toward taking the next short but difficult step on our path to self-knowledge.
Whyte recognizes that in asking people to own their future, his asking people to hazard their most precious and fragile hopes and dreams, in a world that is often associated with a harsh and destructive bottom line. (p.14) He is inviting people to see the world with new eyes.
It means wrestling with unknowns, summoning up the courage to draw on our essential self, to take the steps necessary to venture into the unknown and generate a genuinely new future, one that respects and honors our deepest self, the courage that lies dormant within our hearts, for the great journey across a difficult and unknown sea. (p.27)
There are tremendous forces at work upon people in an organization, trying to make them like everyone else, trying to make them stay the same. Their best friends will try as much as their worst enemies to get them to conform. No profession or sector or organization is exempt from these warping forces. (p.165)
The status quo is a shell into which people can crawl. We justify it to ourselves, adding reasons slowly, layer upon layer, as to why it is no longer possible to live the life we desire until our self-justifications become more real than the work itself. (p.167)
We have to learn to create and tell our own individual story. In the process, we recognize ourselves as storytellers.
Entertaining Conversation
Whyte's other main theme is that of conversation. Whyte writes: "Life is a creative intimate and unpredictable conversation if it is nothing else, spoken or unspoken, and our life and our work are both the result of the particular way we hold that passionate conversation."
It results from application, dedication, and an indefatigable sense of humor, a courageous conversation with ourselves, with those with whom we work,and those whom we serve. "Almost like a sail conversing with the wind, every sail will respond differently according to its shape and the vessel it propels." (p.6)
We need to spark a conversation with something larger than our personal hopes of a career, of advancement, of promotions, and rewards, and the avoidance of punishments and sanctions - a cramped and confined, narrow, mean-spirited world of self-interest. Without some kind of fire at the center of the conversation, life becomes a game of tactics, a way of pulling wool over the eyes of reality while we get our own way.
Whyte wants us to move from a familial, parent-child relationship in the workplace to an adult-adult relationship with our organizations, with all the shock, difficulties, triumphs, and fears that entails. It is something we are unused to.
In a conversation there is always more than one voice. One of the voices must be our own. The other must be that of our listener. We must not try to overpower others with our voice. We are present. We are heard. We are trying to elicit the same inner correspondences in their bodies that will allow them to take the next courageous step that they can call their own.
Whyte believes that as long as the step we take is a real conversation with the greater world, it will lead us right to the frontier of presence we desire.
Why Organizations Need This
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