More compelling contributions from Carman de voer!
Hi Lisa, With predictable perspicacity you observe that we cannot “un-ring the bell” –we may be “drawn back into comfortable, habitual ways of thinking and being.” Your comments afford a splendid segue into the Organization as Psychic Prison metaphor.
Morgan says, “all theories of organization and management are based on implicit images or metaphors that lead us to see, understand, and manage in distinctive yet partial ways,” (p.4) One such metaphor is the psychic prison–Plato’s Cave.
Plato’s Cave
In many respects, Plato’s allegory reminds me of a movie theatre. The following site reproduces the extended metaphor:
http://www.fdl.uwc.edu/faculty/rrigteri/Allegory.htm
I notice that the cave allegory contains some of the following elements:
• Cave people are chained so that they cannot move
• They can see only the cave wall in front of them
• The fire behind them throws shadows of people and objects onto the wall
• The cave dwellers equate the shadows with reality
• The shadow reality of the cave is the only reality they know
• One of the cave dwellers leaves the cave, experiences another world, and returns to the cave to explain the new perspective
• The cave dwellers resist and ridicule the revelation.
To echo your observation, “favored ways of thinking can be so strong that even the disruption is often transformed into a view consistent with the reality of the cave” (Morgan, p.219).
Perhaps we could integrate the allegory into our experience of organizations Lisa?
Reference
Morgan, Gareth (1997). Images of Organization. Sage Publications.
P.S. While writing this entry KUWY played Ravel’s Minuet Antique. During the piece I became like Icarus hovering between heaven and the sea. Rapturous! Thank you for creating this Lyceum Lisa– a wonderful ‘place’ of refreshment and renewal.
From Additional examples of radical transformation & on bells staying rung, 2009/02/08 at 7:59 AM
The Ideal “Leader”
Hi Lisa,
Proceeding on the assumption that a sub-theme of the cave allegory is the search for the ideal leader I would like to explore two dimensions of the cave allegory:
• The prisoners: who are bound to the floor and unable to turn their heads to see what goes on behind them.
• The puppeteers: who above and behind them are casting the shadows on the wall in which the prisoners are perceiving “reality”
The cave is diagrammed at the following site:
http://normanrschultz.org/Courses/graphics/Platocave.JPG
Your blog’s Mission Statement says:
“According to Montuori, the bureaucratic structure and the modern management style, still used by many organizations, is an historical creation, developed and adapted by men for a particular purpose and environment. As a historical creation, it reflects the assumptions its creators held about about the nature of the world, and us as human beings.” Too true!
I see both leaders and led chained to the floor of the cave. Behind them are pupeteers Democritus and Leucippus, and Aristotle who posited that –the Natural world can be understood as mechanical interaction, Rene Descartes—the separation of mind and body, Isaac Newton—who understood the universe as a celestial machine, and more recently, Adam Smith (mass production) Charles Babbage (line of authority) and Frederick Taylor (Management).
I believe Taylor’s Scientific Management has been most influential in shaping our conception of “leadership” (which is, in itself a metaphor).
As we know, Taylor posited:
• Separation of task conception and execution
• shifting responsibility for organization of work to management
• scientific methods for efficiency and precision
• training
• matching job and person
Perhaps we can discuss the above when we find some time Lisa.
Carman, Your description of Ravel’s Minuet Antique inspired me to find and listen to this music, myself!
By any chance, did the radio station mention the artist?
Hope you are having another wonderful day!
Lisa