[Oe List ...] {Disarmed} Re: OE Digest, Vol 38, Issue 30

[Debra Watson]

  This article from ZDNET on tribal or collective wisdom in the workplace seems relevant to some of the recent conversation and concerns around ICA:OE "Living Legacy". It speaks to some of the disconnect and/or unintentional omissions that some of the ICA:USA Board & staff may have to corporate/collective wisdom of OE:ICA and our history... . (I have abbreviated some of the following article and underlined some key points- Debra Harris)
   
  Older workers' knowledge must be preserved:

  Tibco chief executive Vivek Ranadive says companies must preserve the 'tribal wisdom' of retiring employees or pay the price
  "76 million people born between 1946 and 1964 — will begin to retire in droves at the end of this decade. Traditionally, most people retire in their early to mid-60s. If history holds true, that means tens of millions of people will soon exit the workforce.
  What's more alarming than the magnitude of this number is the amount of invaluable experience these people will take with them. These employees have what I call "tribal wisdom", a repository of historical knowledge accumulated over the years that provides a complete and contextual picture of situations.
   
  Businesses with a large population of soon-to-exit boomers will need to figure out how to capture and catalog this tribal wisdom and find a way to pass it down to the next generation of employees in some useful fashion. Otherwise, they will face severe challenges.
  This is especially critical for problems or processes that span functional boundaries and for understanding their interrelated effects.
   
  Let me offer an anecdote: E&J Gallo Winery is a company with more than 4,600 employees and various automated decision-making systems, intranet portals, and knowledge management and business process tools.  One of their lines for filling international orders hadn't been running at peak performance. A number of smart people tried but failed to fix the problem over the course of a week. Then a lone employee, who had worked in the bottling room for 30 years before retiring two years ago, spent a single hour observing how the machine functioned. Within no time, he got the system back to top form.
   
  Tribal wisdom isn't, however, about is targeting and convincing specific people to work beyond retirement. Just the opposite. It's giving the younger generation of workers the opportunity and responsibility to implement change, improve business and organizational processes and preserve the tribal wisdom until it is no longer useful.
   
  Tribal wisdom and the business processes it drives are the lifeblood of any organisation. Businesses that figure this out are going to be a half step ahead of their competition. It's no exaggeration to say that tribal wisdom may eclipse databases as the most valuable of all corporate assets. 
   
  Story URL: http://opinion.zdnet.co.uk/comment/0,1000002138,39280355,00.htm 
  Copyright © 1995-2006 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved
ZDNET is a registered service mark of CNET NEtworks, Inc. ZDNET Logo is a service mark of CNET Networks, Inc.



oe-request at wedgeblade.net wrote:     
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:35:14 -0500
From: "Bill Bailey" 
Subject: [Oe List ...] {Spam?} {Disarmed} RE: ? More changes or more
of the same?
To: "'Order Ecumenical Community'" 
Message-ID: <000001c7b5d6$00fc1de0$6501a8c0 at TheBaileys>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

To All: When anyone or group begins to think, imagine, and plan for the
future they also need to rehearse and remember the wisdom gained from the
past. As JWM would say "What has God Wrought". The reward in doing this is
to recall the context and continuity that has brought us to this point.
Having reflected on the wisdom gained now becomes "seeds for the future"
even if it is time for change and discontinuity.

As for Marianna and I we are still a part of the vision and methods of the
OE/ICA/EI only now we are self-assigned. Marianna has been self-assigned for
the past six years working within the context of "information access" which
was one of the "pressure points" of the Social Process Triangle. She has
done this in order to create and implement a public access TV station which
began telecasting in 2006.

Together we have worked 

* With both the City of Asheville and the Asheville Coalition of
Neighborhoods (CAN) to re-empower neighborhood participation in the future
of Western North Carolina. 
* We have worked with the City and CAN for the past two years on a day
long "Neighborhood Congress" using our workshop methods and imagional
education.
* We have facilitated the TOP program 6 times.
* We helped ICA of Greensboro, NC to facilitate the Eastern Division
of the AIA in a conference on sustainable development. (1997)
* We have designed and implimented several adult nurture courses at
Jubilee. (the place we go on Sunday Morning to "Celebrate Life.") At present
we are involved with 15 families of the Jubilee Community in designing and
creating an intentional community where we are using our spirit, social, and
community methods as a guide. (see www.jubileecommunity.org
.
As for myself, I have worked as volunteer for the past five years as the
minister of pastoral care at Jubilee. This position has given me a vast
experience an opportunity to work with individuals as their "spiritual
guide". It has also given me the opportunity to work with future families in
designing their wedding vows and ritural.

I could go on with this, but I hope this will be a beginning dialogue for
all of us to participate in.

One more thought. In our OE/ICA/EI experiences we created and articulated a
spiritualty and active community that was based on a cultural centered
world-view. The decision to end the historical structures of OE/ICA/EI seems
to me was based on a economic world view (that without which we cannot
exist). Today, as I read it, OE/ICA/EI may not have an economic structure,
but does exisit in spirit.

Bill & Marianna Bailey


-----Original Message-----
From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Janice Ulangca
Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2007 12:57 PM
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] ? More changes or more of the same?

Dear Margaret,

As one working on the Living Legacy event, I find your comments helpful, but
painful because I'm not sure all your concerns can be addressed, at least
not immediately. And I fervently would want to do that.

We are talking about www.ica-usa.org , right?
You are absolutely right - there really is no account of ICA history there.
In addition to the ToP material, the two pages of contextual material deal
with the present, and some possible questions we might relate to, in terms
of the future mission. 

Re the present: the team convening work on the Living Legacy - Judy
Lindblad, Ellen Howie, and myself, with board and Chicago office staff
support - early realized that today no person that we know has a handle on
all the many kinds of work going on now across the U.S. that relate in some
way to ICA contexts and methods. One thing we hope to do at this event is
at least start sharing stories of the work people are doing now. This isn't
to say that history will be ignored. But many are saying they do not want
only to "remember when" and look at the past - but they want to raise
questions about the future.

The three categories in the image on the page about the present are meant to
hold current work that our small group knows about. In some cases we happen
to know just one or two individuals who have gathered colleagues around them
and are working on spirit retreats, or environmental efforts, or churches
effectively serving their communities, for example. We're pretty sure there
is much more that we do not know.

In terms of ICA history - it could make a powerful book for someone to
write. In the meantime, it would be great if you would write an account of
the history that seems most critical, and post it on the message board on
the web site. Your stories are important! And we want to honor them. You
might inspire others to add their accounts. 

Within a couple of weeks we should be ready to give more information about
the facilitation team (that is not us, and is part of ICA so they know us
well) and a general outline of what to expect at this Living Legacy event.
There's no intent to be mysterious - we're working pretty flat out to get
things confirmed before making announcements. 

Yours has been the most articulate cry (if I may use that word) in favor of
honoring the breadth of ICA history that I at least have experienced in
working on this. So thank you.

Janice Ulangca

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Margaret Helen Aiseayew 

To: Order Ecumenical Community ; Barbara and Don
Barkony ; Beret
Griffith 

Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2007 9:38 AM

Subject: [Oe List ...] ? More changes or more of the same?

  The new sameness seems to be: ELIMINATE IT. And in my opinion it is with
extreme prejudice. Truth, whatever it may be, is much more often
inconvenient that even Al Gore might think.

I am astounded by the web site and the selectivity of memory it represents.
I went back to try and find the reference to JWM and no matter what spelling
is used, the ERROR seems to have been eliminated from the website by
eliminating the reference. At least the search system won't bring it up.

I was signed up for the previously scheduled "Living Legacy" event that was
to have been at the Aragon Ballroom in Uptown. I'm sorry I can't bring
myself to sign up for this one. I can't imagine a history that discusses
only our international conferences and ToP programs and eliminates all
references to ongoing community development work, the entire community
revitalization network across the country, eliminated. All of our
periodical publications, eliminated. All of our work with the poorest of
the poor right here (the homeless, the drug addicted, the immigrants, the
refugees, the abused and neglected), eliminated. All of our work with
churches (even as the ICA), eliminated. All of our work with building
sustainable urban environments, eliminated.

We would appear to be an organization very good at sponsoring international
conferences. Whose passion is that going to arouse?

I seem to remember in some lecture we used to give, talking about trying to
patch over the intrusions of reality into our lives with bandaids. I find
myself ashamed of and then sorry for those who could no longer tolerate the
continuous intrusion and the uncertainty it always represents and felt
compelled to eliminate it. I find the actions of colleagues who have
related to this as just one more intrusion (some strange attempt to prevent
them, stop them, deter them from declaring the word with all they do in
their lives) courageous.

Personally, I find it offensive and desperately sad that some few people are
putting so much effort into denigrating, denying, prevaricating and even
eliminating so much of my personal history of care. It happens. I also
worked as a permeator enough to have been resigned, reassigned, downsized,
outsourced, redundanted (I know it's not a word), merged, bought out, closed
down and even outwitted in the workplace. My engagement with the ICA was
never just a workplace. I am ashamed to have to try and explain how what
shows up on the website seems to have nothing to do with the stories I tell
of what I gave my life to for 32 years. Not to worry, I'll keep telling my
stories. They have to do with faith and persistence and care and are worthy
of being told because they inspire.

I have no spell-check, just a passion for the word.

Margaret



The Watson Family:
Jeff & Debra Watson
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20070623/a78faf8f/attachment-0001.html