Subject: Enquiries about Holistic Management (fwd)

From: Victor Guest <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 12:18:02 WST

At 12:44 PM 10/17/97 +0200, Richard Reynolds wrote:
>Thank you for your reply to my enquiry about HRM, however I still
>need an indication of production figures that will allow me to assess
>the final productivity of HRM.  I appreciate the fact that HRM has
>numerous benefits as a management philosophy (which your previous
>e-mail assisted in clarifying), however the immediate issue I am
>evaluating is animal production.  
>
>The main reason for looking at animal production is to be able to
>give a financial value to the introduction of HRM.  The farmers that
>I have spoken to have expressed interest in the concepts, but
>trepidation with respect to financial returns (profitability).  An
>unprofitable system will collapse with both good or bad management,
>purely because of a lack of financial viability.  I need to be able
>to back up any advice given with numbers rather than creative
>language.
>
>I hope that you will be able to assist me in locating this data
>(which I am sure is available somewhere) and I appreciate any effort
>that you may make in this regard.  
>
>Yours sincerely
>Richard Reynolds
>

Richard, I'm sorry but you haven't understood the point I was trying to
make. This is not your fault, but mine. I'll try again, and thank you for
the opportunity to do so. It is important to ask a meaningful question.

Holistic Management is not a PRODUCTION system, but a PROCESS about how to
make decisions. Whether it is profitable or not is impossible to
generalize, but it can assist in making profits if that is part of the
goal, but the profit is only PART of the goal. Holistic management may be
used for managing a non-profit organization, or for managing one's life
when the income is fixed, or if one is independently wealthy living on
income from a trust, or ... whatever one does.

In making decisions, one first needs a description of what is to be
achieved by the decisions. Holistic management in part helps one determine
the goal. It is called an "holistic goal" because it should contain
everything that is important, directly or indirectly, to success of other
parts of the goal. This sounds strange and impossibly complex, but it
actually can be pretty simple. The goal is a reminder when decisions are
made in particular circumstances that achieving immediate objectives affect
many other parts of one's life, to be aware of the broader implications,
and to remind oneself to monitor the incidental effects that may be
contrary to what must happen to achieve the goal. The holistic goal is an
operational device to keep this interconnectedness of the emotional
reactions of humans ("quality of life") in line with the resources that are
necessary to act so that the desired emotions are achieved (this may be
money, but also it may be "friends" whom money can't buy). Of course,
having desired emotions depends on being able to act and live, and the
essentials are supplied by a broader biosphere (ecological, sociological,
etc., which is the third part of the holistic goal). If one finds that some
problem arises because of an oversight in previous decisions, it may be
that a revision of the holistic goal can avoid this kind of problem in the
future. Therefore, the holistic goal is immediately useful, and regularly
refined.

Also in making decisions, one needs to know what is important, and what is
peripheral. The process of holistic management helps sort out these issues.
If one is a rancher, then the issues will be somewhat different from if one
is a bank president, or if one is a parent. But, there will also be many
things that are held in common. Skillful use of holistic management will
fine tune the cues for each. However, from a categorical beginning, which
is the form holistic management is initially introduced by most of the
people I know, a person or organization scans their "world" and begins to
understand what was known all along in a way that may be better organized
to detect the interactions of various processes that "give results". The
wording of much of what is said about holistic management reflects it's
origins in ranching, but these are modified to other words with equivalent
symbolic roles in whatever context holistic management is used. In a
family, one would hardly treat the kids in the same way as one's
professional peers, but the common ground would be one of respect,
consideration of future relationships, and mutual benefits. We'd use
different words to both communicate with them, and to describe to others
how we interacted with them. Nevertheless, the fundamental values and many
of the dynamics of relationships would hold true.

These two aspects of holistic management are what I consider the best
developed differences from other management processes, such as Deming's
"Total Quality Management." For me, and I find from my experience with
university students, the process of actually forming an holistic goal is
somewhat of an "epiphany" experience. Students often are in college because
this is ASSUMED to be what they SHOULD be doing. However, for them to
recognize that a university degree is merely a tool (like a "union
membership card") and also represents an achievement of certain skills and
information base, is a shock. I had one student, upon forming his holistic
goal, recognize that he did not want to be a physician, and go to medical
school. He declined his acceptance and scholarship. His "passion" was
elsewhere, and he decided to become a professional of a different sort. 

What was his "profit" from the decision? One cannot evaluate this question
because he can only LIVE ONE LIFE. Management is not about averages and
comparisons. It is about making a single trip the best possible trip. If
I've made the process of making decisions clearly, your question about
"profitability" of holistic management should now be clearly as meaningless
as if you had asked about the profitability of a rain. It all depends on
the context -- the holistic goal -- and what actions are taken to either
utilize some of the factors associated with a rain, and other actions to
avoid some of the hazards associated with other factors of a rain. Holistic
management is NOT a way to USE the rain for PRODUCTION. It is about how to
take advantage of the rain in ways that lead toward the particular holistic
goal. Maybe the best immediate way is to sit quietly and listen to it on
the rooftop!

I hope this helps you see what I'm trying to say. I have seen many others
besides you be confused about what holistic management actually is. But,
when the light comes on, it is not a question if it is "worth the
investment" but about how can one best use the ideas and perspectives it
helps develop.

Good Luck, and I appreciate your persistence by this second response. If
you have a desire for more, please feel free to follow up. I'm sure there
will be others interested in offering their insights or information, and
who are close at hand. I am a strong proponent of looking at something from
many angles, and different people will have different things to offer.

Sincerely,

Dick Richardson

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