Subject: Re: The "people process" in holistic management (fwd)

From: Victor Guest <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 06:50:31 WST

Dick Richarson is getting at the core of people interaction here.
Acadamia and intelligencia can invalidate people with their superiority,
when they need to learn and absorb the skills of the people they are 
trying to work with. 
Vic
------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 06:08 PM 10/25/97 -0400, Karl S North wrote:
[snip]
> HM recognizes the importance of the people process by making
>collaborative goal-setting a first order of business and perhaps the most
>salient feature of this decision-making model. Leisa said,
>
>  In an interest-based negotiation process,
>>stakeholders in an issue come together to educate each other about their
>>interests rather than negotiate from entrenched positions.  A position
>is
>>a specific proposal for how we ought to deal with an issue.  An interest
>>is the reason why we are making the proposal.
>
>In Holistic Management language, this is moving the people process toward
>statements of basic goals and values before any discussion of immediate
>problem-related goals takes place. 

Indeed, Karl and Leisa have encapsulated the initial stage of the holistic
managment process. However, even this can be too "intellectual" for some
folks. There are many ways to share values, but I don't know of any values
that don't evoke emotional "validation" -- we know our values by the way we
feel when we consider them, and act consistently with them. The
formalization of the process as typically presented sometimes misses the
obvious. I like to begin with students (often unaware of their core values)
by asking them to consider situations where they felt "good" at the time
and later on when they recalled the experience. The process of doing this
sets in motion many important thoughts, which are easily recognized in all
of us. It also helps a person distinguish between "good" when under peer
pressure, and "good" upon reflection. Intellectuallization is not
necessary, but developing a gut-level understanding IS necessary for
holistic management. 

>
>And yet, with all this focus on the people process, there are indications
>that it has to get a lot better. My HM trainer shocks trainees by saying
>"most who take the 3 day course never succeed in using HM in their lives,
>institutions, or farms". As one contributor to this list suggested, that
>may well be a sign of failure in teaching, or in the teaching materials.
>One Heifer Project International educator told me that HM was too
>intellectual, too abstract for third world farmers to swallow. Apparently
>that is the case with many first world farmers as well. At the other end
>of the spectrum there are indications that HM can be easily dismissed in
>academia as too simplistic, or as just another interesting (but not
>compelling) model. 

Academics have strong training in scientific procedures, but often have
weak gut level understanding of the philosophy of scientific thought (and
sometimes only modest experience in "real world hands-on" ecosystem
management). The temptation is to consider holistic managmeent to be a
"model" or a "system" of establishing what is to be done, which can be
refuted with data that are inconsistent. However, holistic management is a
process of changing what is being done as new information of "what is
happening" rolls in. Each situation is changing, and unique. This is not a
scientific model that can be "tested" but a process that can be treated as
a skill. For example, one can't prove that a bicycle canNOT work by it's
failing, but one can demonstrate that it CAN work by it's successful use.
The difference lies in the skill of and information available to the USER.
This is strange ground for "formal science" to be addressing, but the
terminology and expectations of the listener can make gut level
misunderstanding very easy. If we bring together an "intellectualized"
version of holistic management and a scientific oriented "intelligencia" we
have a basis designed for misunderstanding of what holistic management is!

>
>The core idea, that the world consists of wholes or whole systems, and
>must be managed accordingly, can be stated clearly and simply in the
>abstract. The bottleneck seems to be in developing ways to teach it so
>that it will significantly change the way people live their lives and
>relate to each other. 

Right on! To learn to ride a bicycle one must begin, and falling over is
NOT a sign of failure, but not getting up and trying again IS.

Dick

R. H. (Dick) Richardson                     (512) 471-4128 office
Zoology Dept.                                     471-9651 FAX
University of Texas                               
Austin, TX 78712