Sometimes we don't know where we're headed. We only know we don't want to
be where we've been any longer. And we believe that doing something,
anything, even if it's wrong, is better than doing nothing. Like Harrison
Ford's character in the movie "Regarding Henry" who knew he didn't want to
be an attorney anymore, Narayan Pant said "when" (as in, "Say when you've
had enough sugar in your coffee"). Doing this kind of thing is also central
in management education and development. Even if we script things
thoroughly in advance, if what we're doing isn't working for the client then
we need to move on to something else that will work. This, in part, is the
art form of the work we do. Knowing when to move this direction. Knowing
when to move in that direction. Knowing when to probe further. Knowing
when to disengage. As Kenny Rogers says in his classic song, "you got to
know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know
when to run..." As I see it, that's what Narayn, as artist, did by
suggesting that we "move on."
Best,
Larry
At 02:05 AM 4/24/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Narayan Pant said, "I vote we move on."
>
>Insufficient (in my opinion). Move on to what? Specifically, what topic of
>Management Education and Development do you suggest that would be of both
>general and intellectual interest?
>--
>Prof. John L. Naman naman+@pitt.edu
http://www.pitt.edu/~naman
>