Doublespeak
John Maloney
Hi –
Doublespeak is language constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning and furnish a pleasing or subdued mental reaction. Often doublespeak uses initialisms to further confuse the audience or reader. Here below are recent, actual examples of doublespeak introduced by the new Obama Administration to bamboozle ordinary people… and their ordinary translation.
· Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) = bailout
· Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) = war
· Revenue Enhancement Programs (REP) = taxes
· Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) = amnesty
Meanwhile, among the early and most lasting business benefits and advantages of VNA use is authenticity. Productive VNA sessions and conversations are devoid of the pervasive doublespeak that infects so many organizations and makes them ridiculous, ineffective and moribund.
VNA discourse w/in the mapping, visualization and optimization activities is about making sense and creating meaning. For many, it is the first time ever in their professional life they have had an authentic conversation concerning value creation and achieving positive outcomes.
We’ve all known for decades the so-called OD and change ‘interventions’ are thinly-veiled attempts to legitimize existing practices, policies, processes, patterns and positions. We are all highly skilled in the art of preserving our positions, sometimes called CYA. We even have sophisticated methods like change management to deliberately reinforce and energize organizational intransigence. Not to mention, because of the zero-sum-game, there is no room for negotiation – justify your position or your are o-u-t!
Parasitic OD practitioners thrive on using doublespeak and history, legitimacy, interdependence, codification and so forth to preserve and sanctify ineffective org structures and patterns for their economic buyers and masters. (Don’t believe me? Just try sitting in on the next change/OD farce in your organization… You will be convinced in a heartbeat.)
VNA introduce the equivalent of a Copernican inversion by establishing value and outcome, not organizational structure, process or position, as the unit of analysis and center of meaning. VNA formulates the comprehensive value-centric topology, fluidity and pathways for adjacent, recursive and perpetual value creation. The VNA method has no use and no room for doublespeak, obfuscation or the defensiveness that renders conventional approaches completely ineffective.
-j
Benoit Couture
Here's an idea of how I introduce VNA to those to whom I write:
"From my limited knowledge of how the powers that be go about making decisions, VNA is an emerging tool to visualize assessment with the kind of transparency that works to prevent corruption and to determine the best way to move and to maximize the worth of value and the value of worth.
Because of the clarity of networking that they serve with, the value-chains are solidified in high-trust, while clarity enhances where and how wealth can better serve us all.
No trickery of deceit and no bullying of "turf mentalities". Fair play and sportsmanship honesty rules.
The way I understand my time with them as a google group member for the last couple of years or so, they seem equipped and growing so that dexterity of collaboration feeds the healthy resolution to adapt to the currency of times, riding the tsunami of the present economic crisis in the way to surf safely to the shores of secure renewal and prosperous sustainability."
Dreaming on and on with faith and hope...
...it is my food for thoughts,
|
Scott McFarland
Scott
Kathleen Marvin
John Bordeaux
Joe Wharton
If you have covered the following, please direct me to its resolution, if not:
How does VNA work with Project/Program Management? In what PM areas would VNA be most useful?
Thanks,
Joe
Joseph A. Wharton, PMP
Lafayette, CA
(San Francisco East Bay Area)
From: kath...@sbcglobal.net
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Doublespeak
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:34:59 -0700
<BR
John Maloney
Hi Kathleen, Thanks for your message. On the contrary, I am the world’s biggest advocate for KM and been a practitioner for 20ys. If you think suggesting the discipline is too focused on technology, for example, is ‘trashing’ KM people, then you are confused. If suggesting traditional OD needs a bit of remediation offends you, that’s your problem. Most, 9 out 10, folks in both areas agree, and agree strongly. Anytime there is deliberate push-back like yours, it is sign of dysfunction… and often and hopefully an impending inflection point. There are encouraging signs that KM is on the rebound, and vociferous supporter-critics deserve credit. On the other hand, traditional OD is still in the doldrums, and is probably on the slow road to oblivion. Cordially, -j
From:
Value-N...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Kathleen Marvin
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 7:35 PM
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Doublespeak
Mr. Maloney, I guess you are trying to stimulate....something.... Although I certainly have no status in the upper regions of this forum, as a human being I feel compelled to wonder at your consistent trashing of KM and now OD people, since it seems to me you would want them to embrace VNA.
Kathleen Marvin
<BR
Dr. Edna Pasher
I fully agree with you!
I believe we have been "politicaly correct" for too long.
If our conversations on-line or off-line are to create solutions for real problems we need the legitimacy to express our thoughts and feelings bravely. Courage is what I often miss in change processes. I believe that without courage there is no change.
I would like to share with you what I learnt from my late mentor and teacher Prof. Neil Postman. In his book Crazy Talk Stupid Talk he wrote:
"The problem of crazy talk...is not in what it does for you but in what it does to you. Crazy talk, even in its milder forms, requires that we be mystified, suspend critical judgment, accept premises without question, and (frequently) abandon entirely the idea that language ought to be connected with reality...
The 'problem' of crazy talk is...very close to uncorrectable. It does not involve a momentary loss of judgment, subject to review in a more rational moment. Crazy talk usually puts forward a point of view that is considered virtuous and progressive. Its assumptions, metaphors, and conclusions are therefore taken for granted, and that, in the end, is what makes it crazy. For it is language that cannot get outside of itself. It buries itself in its own foundations."
With warm regards,
Edna
Hi Kathleen, Thanks for your message. On the contrary, I am the world’s biggest advocate for KM and been a practitioner for 20ys. If you think suggesting the discipline is too focused on technology, for example, is ‘trashing’ KM people, then you are confused. If suggesting traditional OD needs a bit of remediation offends you, that’s your problem. Most, 9 out 10, folks in both areas agree, and agree strongly. Anytime there is deliberate push-back like yours, it is sign of dysfunction… and often and hopefully an impending inflection point. There are encouraging signs that KM is on the rebound, and vociferous supporter-critics deserve credit. On the other hand, traditional OD is still in the doldrums, and is probably on the slow road to oblivion. Cordially, -j
From: Value-N...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Kathleen Marvin
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 7:35 PM
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Doublespeak
Mr. Maloney, I guess you are trying to stimulate....something.... Although I certainly have no status in the upper regions of this forum, as a human being I feel compelled to wonder at your consistent trashing of KM and now OD people, since it seems to me you would want them to embrace VNA.
Kathleen Marvin
www.working-life.biz
----- Original Message -----
John Maloney
Hi John –
Thanks for your identical posts. The origins of particular terms of doublespeak are unimportant by definition. BTW, that you had to ‘speak’ twice, with a ‘double’ post is ironic and hilarious start for Friday (thanks!). Your posts also eerily reminiscent of the dystopia of “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
While on the subject, the current admin’s race to regulation is a stunning example of ‘doublethink’ – George Orwell’s invention of accepting as truthful two mutually contradictory beliefs. Recall, the industries that created the financial mess are by far the MOST regulated in the USA – banking, insurance, Fannie/Freddie, credit rating agencies, etc. etc. Meanwhile, the mostly unregulated industries are doing just fine. Hence, use doublethink and newspeak, to fix the problem by duping people into believing in applying broader and deeper regulation to correct the mess. Orwell called this appropriately ‘controlled insanity.’
The point is that value networks and VNA can be instrumental in stemming the tidal way of bureaucracy and doublespeak in any organization. For the enterprise, it can be particularly useful in for understanding and correcting overweight IT legacy costs which are often a severe drag on organizational agility, for example.
For another example, take the US Postal Service, an organization often held up as an sterling example of a fully nationalized industry. Never mind the service sucks, they ran a $5.4B deficit in 2007, and project it to be much larger in 2009.
Oh, and BTW, forget about the AIG executives. John Potter, Postmaster General, rcv’d and eye-popping $165,000.00 cash ‘performance’ bonus last year – approved by, yep, Congress. Total annual comp package for the USPS Postmaster General is >$800,000.00 for running the organization into the dirt. Woo-hoo! Meanwhile, non-nationalized, value-focused, private companies like FedEx an UPS are global, respected and prosperous.
Anyway, the idea is that the sharp government expansion and nationalization underway has severe side effects that can often be illuminated with value and outcome methods like VNA. For example, so-called Tax-Freedom-Day or when you finish-up working to pay taxes each year varies slightly for each state, but will be around 30 April this year. Those months of ‘unproductive’ work need to be worked into the value equation.
Finally, today’s govt admin is saying the they want to ‘eliminate the boom and bubble cycle’ of the economy. Wow! Bravo! That is true doublespeak! Look, there have been 12 major recessions since 1931. They are a necessary part of a living, complex economic ecosystem. Essential ebb and flow is critical in networks, markets and nature. Trying to attenuate or eliminate the normal, value-generating properties of living systems, market ecosystems and value networks is a fatal mistake. Last example of classic doublespeak – planned economy.
Cordially,
John
P.S. Please no ridiculous political recriminations – this post is about factual current events vis-à-vis value networks. If you can refract and anneal value networks or VNA against current, past or, especially, future events, it is very welcome. Please, no politics.
From:
Value-N...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of John Bordeaux
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 7:48 PM
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Doublespeak
[Sent this in two hours ago, still hasn't shown up - sure hope I'm not offending the moderators...]
Didier PH Martin
From: John Maloney
John Maloney
Salut Didier –
Thanks for a thoughtful and cogent reply. It really gets close to the nub of the issue. However, some implied conclusions are off-the-wall.
a) trust:
Yes. The crisis is rooted in intangibles – trust, confidence, risk, reputation, etc., and the transformation to intangible economies. VNA is the pathway for mastery of intangibles.
this systems allows some individual to get profits and dump the lost on the society as a whole.
That’s kooky. Take a break.
banks to expand the risk over what they can do
Absolutely! I screamed bloody murder when banks and investment banks were able to float in the capital markets. It is crazy! This recipe for disaster was cooked up and really implemented in the 1990s. Goldman’s 1999 IPO was the height of insanity. (Clinton Admin.) Talk about a Ponzi Scheme! Wow!
Remember, Bush enacted SarBox -- the most far-reaching reforms of American business since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
(Again, no thin political recriminations, please. These administrations, Roosevelt, Clinton, Bush, are mentioned for historical purpose only.)
d) rules: & several financial vehicles were not totally transparent.
Double absolutely! Rules and enforcement are important, particularly those that expand and develop openness, transparency and access.
From the value networks and VNA perspective, XBRL is the key regulatory development tracked by the action/research clusters and value networks community closely for about a decade. Finally, it is here. http://xbrl.us Whew! Better late than never.
- Every public company is now required to report in XBRL format
- The largest 500 companies began compliance in June 2008
- SEC rules now require credit rating agencies and mutual funds to report in XBRL.
- Over 8,000 banking institutions report in XBRL format.
For example, VNA/XBRL allows us, real people, the collective intelligence, to watch the watchers. Due diligence, including soon, intangible due diligence, will be available to collective intelligence networks and broad markets with great ease, openness and transparency. This is from the leadership mandate of Chris Cox (SEC chair); it’s just a little late for it to do his legacy any good.
(BTW, if you are interested in collective intelligence networks and informed markets, see these popular clusters http://www.pmcluster.com/ ).
Believe me, XBRL is far better than a sanctimonious apparatchik in some Palladian institutional office building near Foggy Bottom setting executive comp or sales quota for private companies.
BTW, here is great value network and VNA colleague and cluster speaker Mark Bolgiano testifying on XBRL to Congress.
“Prepared remarks given by Mark Bolgiano, President and CEO, XBRL US, described how the use of a free, open-source technology standard can be used to provide citizens, government and investors consistent, comparable reporting on the existing pool of securitized assets, help regulators track the disbursement and use of TARP funds and enable more effective regulation by government. XBRL is a standard agreed upon by industry and government that makes information computer-readable and therefore more easily searched on, extracted and analyzed.” http://xbrl.us/press/Pages/20090310.aspx
what would you say of a value network were the rules are all created to bring the wealth to a few to the detriment of the many.
Easy. Soviet Union, Cuba, Libya, Iran, North Korea, and Burma… just for starters.
Cheers,
John
From:
Value-N...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Didier PH Martin
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 7:59 AM
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Doublespeak
Hello John,
tom abeles
I am having some difficulty understanding your answers below. My questions, like yours, are interspersed
thanks
tom
tom abeles
From: jheur...@gmail.com
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: Doublespeak
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:13:00 -0700
Salut Didier –
Thanks for a thoughtful and cogent reply. It really gets close to the nub of the issue. However, some implied conclusions are off-the-wall.
a) trust:
Yes. The crisis is rooted in intangibles – trust, confidence, risk, reputation, etc., and the transformation to intangible economies. VNA is the pathway for mastery of intangibles.
Trust is a significant part of relationships. The trust is more than faith that the person or organization is honest. In part it has to do with their ability to understand what it is that they really understand and that they are conveying it in a clear manner. Thus a salesman may inherently believe in the product or service and convey it clearly and dispassionately. But that is not true whether it is a financial service, a trade service or a product. The independent "broker/dealer" be it financial instruments, insurance or other service should be neutral with regards to the products that they represent. But they are not, and not because they are intentionally trying to push one over the other.
The same happens in corporations or organizations. Here we add the issue of competency. But neither here nor above am I assuming intentional biases and yet we know that these play a significant role. Trust in many ways is making a bet on persons based on some conscious and unconscious criteria.
One of those criteria, often not spoken, is TIME. How much Time can we spend to sort through all the decision paths. After all, there are some who worship several religions because there are areas of uncertainty.
Given the idea of "trust", it seems to me that there is not a "network" but networks and some of these are filled with cognitive dissonance leading to some decisions that are not clear and, even, perhaps, orthogonal to any rational analysis. Trust, like love and other human emotions, seem to yield to logical analysis in retrospect.
This, of course, raises questions below.
this systems allows some individual to get profits and dump the lost on the society as a whole.
That’s kooky. Take a break.
Actually, it is not as "kooky" as it sounds or as malevolent. This is the entire beef that heterodox economists have with neo-classical. It's the externalities, like letting the environment absorb the costs of pollution. Now it is coming home to roost. The issue around financial instruments is complex. Taking a fraction of a cent off millions of transactions yields great profits and no one minds. But when the markets go South, then the yields are highly visible, especially, as with investment bankers, the pay-off to a few is magnified when the losses of the many cause pain, as in the current markets. I can't suspend belief that the folks at the Wall Street firms were not hedging their bets when they locked in bonuses. They just weren't thinking systematically- and "trusting?"
banks to expand the risk over what they can do
Absolutely! I screamed bloody murder when banks and investment banks were able to float in the capital markets. It is crazy! This recipe for disaster was cooked up and really implemented in the 1990s. Goldman’s 1999 IPO was the height of insanity. (Clinton Admin.) Talk about a Ponzi Scheme! Wow!
Remember, Bush enacted SarBox -- the most far-reaching reforms of American business since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
(Again, no thin political recriminations, please. These administrations, Roosevelt, Clinton, Bush, are mentioned for historical purpose only.)
d) rules: & several financial vehicles were not totally transparent.
Double absolutely! Rules and enforcement are important, particularly those that expand and develop openness, transparency and access.
From the value networks and VNA perspective, XBRL is the key regulatory development tracked by the action/research clusters and value networks community closely for about a decade. Finally, it is here. http://xbrl.us Whew! Better late than never.
- Every public company is now required to report in XBRL format
- The largest 500 companies began compliance in June 2008
- SEC rules now require credit rating agencies and mutual funds to report in XBRL.
- Over 8,000 banking institutions report in XBRL format.
For example, VNA/XBRL allows us, real people, the collective intelligence, to watch the watchers. Due diligence, including soon, intangible due diligence, will be available to collective intelligence networks and broad markets with great ease, openness and transparency. This is from the leadership mandate of Chris Cox (SEC chair); it’s just a little late for it to do his legacy any good.
(BTW, if you are interested in collective intelligence networks and informed markets, see these popular clusters http://www.pmcluster.com/ ).
Believe me, XBRL is far better than a sanctimonious apparatchik in some Palladian institutional office building near Foggy Bottom setting executive comp or sales quota for private companies.
BTW, here is great value network and VNA colleague and cluster speaker Mark Bolgiano testifying on XBRL to Congress.
“Prepared remarks given by Mark Bolgiano, President and CEO, XBRL US, described how the use of a free, open-source technology standard can be used to provide citizens, government and investors consistent, comparable reporting on the existing pool of securitized assets, help regulators track the disbursement and use of TARP funds and enable more effective regulation by government. XBRL is a standard agreed upon by industry and government that makes information computer-readable and therefore more easily searched on, extracted and analyzed.” http://xbrl.us/press/Pages/20090310.aspx
Yes, it seems to me that good reporting is important. And uniform reporting is important. But, the question is, even with this, how many people will read these. How many read the statements which are provided on a lot of discussion groups on the internet? Do I have a higher level of trust knowing that my "network" has folks who are supposedly able to read these, do read them and react in my best interest. Remember that it may be clear but what is good for me may not be good, even for my co-worker or next door neighbor.
Uniform reporting does not necessarily secure an optimum solution for a mixed population with differing interests. Otherwise we would not have "markets". And that raises the issue of both the formal and informal economy. I may like platinum rings and vegetarian food and others are different. The uniform reporting, no matter how transparent and simple, does not guarantee.
what would you say of a value network were the rules are all created to bring the wealth to a few to the detriment of the many.
Easy. Soviet Union, Cuba, Libya, Iran, North Korea, and Burma… just for starters.
As you say, let's keep politics out of the discussion
Cheers,
John
Saludos
Tom
Tom Abeles
From:
Value-N...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Didier PH Martin
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 7:59 AM
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Doublespeak
Hello John,
If your goal is to provoke then you reached your goal :-)
if we speak of value network the actual financial value network is caught in a negative loop with negative implications throughout the global economy. Several problems could be found at the root:
a) trust: several financial vehicles were not totally transparent. For instance, the financial asset Iceland bought were supposed to be backed with assets. A lot of bank around the world assume that US banks evaluated and accurately measured and published the risk. No, this wasn't the case. Moreover, several fact were lacking in the financial vehicle to fully appreciate the risks.
b) evaluation of risk: several financial institution simply dumped the risk on the shoulder of others by creating derivative products on derivative products. A good way to dissolve the original facts and risk factors.
c) Financial companies asking for help: It's simple, the neo-classical economy point of view (that you defend) practically is based on individual rewards and social lost. In other words, this systems allows some individual to get profits and dump the lost on the society as a whole.
d) rules: In Canada, some rules prevent banks to expand the risk over what they can do. These rules are lacking in the US system and the rest of the world suffer because of that.
So John, it seems that a value network lacking rules can lead to excess and social loss. For example, what would you say of a value network were the rules are all created to bring the wealth to a few to the detriment of the many.
Cheers
Didier PH Martin, PhD.
----- Original Message -----
Didier PH Martin
this systems allows some individual to get profits and dump the lost on the society as a whole.
a) Like tom said, the actual system dump the externalities on the society as a whole. If these cost were included, the profit of the few would be much lower and the loss of the many less extensive.
b) Allowing the originator of the actual type of financial crisis to learn from their mistake (let them be bankrupt) would imply a social cost. hence, the mistake of the few would let the many to suffer the mistake of the many. I think that if a single enterprise does a mistake and do bankrupt, it is not so bad if other enterprises take the relay. But if an entire sector of the industry do the very same mistake then the classical rules of economies are not the same. The actual crisis is based on a mismanagement by a few of the money from the many (even if it is monetary mass introduced by the feds).
c) This also raise the question of who should manage the money mass and borrowing, the public or private sector? Is the money owned by a few or by the many?
d) Incompetency or too much greed seeking of the financial sector managers. When interviewed, several money manager said that they don't understand the rocket science of their quantitative analyst. Then why pay these managers millions of dollar if they don't understand?
e) Maybe it is time for economist and CFA to reconsider some of the actual risk management premises like for instance the usage of the David X Li equation. This equation may work well in a perfect world with rational human being but surely not in our planet with the actual human beings.
So, the magnitude of the actual mistake of a few and the major impact on the many makes this crisis different than a simple bankrupt of a local business. If you discover that your entire value network is producing on the long run more loss than gain for the many, then it is probably time to change the rules of the value network and maybe preferably to change its configuration. The worse thing is to allow a deficient network to redo the same errors again and again and worse of all to reward it if it produces negative value.
Cheers
Didier PH Martin, PhD.
Didier PH Martin
----- Original Message -----
From: John Maloney
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 9:52 AMSubject: RE: Doublespeak
verna...@valuenetworks.com
included as a critical component of IT project management in the ITIL
Handbook V3.
http://www.openvna.com/Articles/Allee-Meggitt-for-APM-06AUG06.pdf.
VNA is useful for any area of PM where people need to collaborate or
negotiate exactly how they are going to work together. In other
words...almost every aspect of Project and Program Management. A
couple of years ago a workshop opened with introductions and one
participant stated that he just needed to understand where he would
use VNA. At the end of the day he stated that he had an answer to his
question - that you use VNA with whatever is on the table!
Virtually any business activity can be described as a value network.
Doing so brings insights into productivity gains that simply cannot be
seen with other management tools.
Hope this helps,
Verna
On Mar 26, 7:50 pm, Joe Wharton <jawhar...@msn.com> wrote:
> John:
>
> If you have covered the following, please direct me to its resolution, if not:
>
> How does VNA work with Project/Program Management? In what PM areas would VNA be most useful?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Joe
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Joseph A. Wharton, PMP
> Lafayette, CA
> (San Francisco East Bay Area)
>
> To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: Doublespeak
> Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:34:59 -0700
>
> Mr. Maloney, I guess you are trying to stimulate....something.... Although I certainly have no status in the upper regions of this forum, as a human being I feel compelled to wonder at your consistent trashing of KM and now OD people, since it seems to me you would want them to embrace VNA.
>
> Kathleen Marvinwww.working-life.biz
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: John Maloney
> To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
> Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 2:30 PM
> Subject: Doublespeak
>
> Hi –
>
> Doublespeak is language constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning and furnish a pleasing or subdued mental reaction. Often doublespeak uses initialisms to further confuse the audience or reader. Here below are recent, actual examples of doublespeak introduced by the new Obama Administration to bamboozle ordinary people… and their ordinary translation.
>
> · Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) = bailout
> · Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) = war
> · Revenue Enhancement Programs (REP) = taxes
> · Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) = amnesty
>
> Meanwhile, among the early and most lasting business benefits and advantages of VNA use is authenticity. Productive VNA sessions and conversations are devoid of the pervasive doublespeak that infects so many organizations and makes them ridiculous, ineffective and moribund.
>
> VNA discourse w/in the mapping, visualization and optimization activities is about making sense and creating meaning. For many, it is the first time ever in their professional life they have had an authentic conversation concerning value creation and achieving positive outcomes.
>
> We’ve all known for decades the so-called OD and change ‘interventions’ are thinly-veiled attempts to legitimize existing practices, policies, processes, patterns and positions. We are all highly skilled in the art of preserving our positions, sometimes called CYA. We even have sophisticated methods like change management to deliberately reinforce and energize organizational intransigence. Not to mention, because of the zero-sum-game, there is no room for negotiation – justify your position or your are o-u-t!
>
> Parasitic OD practitioners thrive on using doublespeak and history, legitimacy, interdependence, codification and so forth to preserve and sanctify ineffective org structures and patterns for their economic buyers and masters. (Don’t believe me? Just try sitting in on the next change/OD farce in your organization… You will be convinced in a heartbeat.)
>
> VNA introduce the equivalent of a Copernican inversion by establishing value and outcome, not organizational structure, process or position, as the unit of analysis and center of meaning. VNA formulates the comprehensive value-centric topology, fluidity and pathways for adjacent, recursive and perpetual value creation. The VNA method has no use and no room for doublespeak, obfuscation or the defensiveness that renders conventional approaches completely ineffective.
>
> -j
>
> - Show quoted text -
Stewart Levine
value and contributes to results. In a self organizing context it is
essential and looking at it in a mapped framework as Verna's article points
out adds great value.
Verna's article references the contracting aspect of PM. I am attaching an
article that details what I call "Agreements for Results." The critical
points for this discussion is the framework it provides for goal / vision to
make sure everyone is on the same page; promises of what people will do and
renegotiation that enables a constant feedback loop.
This model was very well received in a series of presentations I did for
various PMI chapters in 2006. Echoing Verna's point of relationship and
interaction being critical the framework is meant to be a template for the
essential ongoing conversations that enable a group to get from A to B
without incurring the huge cost of conflict. Among other places the model
has been successfully applied as the building block of start-ups and as a
partnering template for major construction projects.
Stewart
Stewart L. Levine, Esq., Resolutionary
Author: Getting to Resolution
The Book of Agreement
The Cycle of Resolution in The Change Handbook
NEW: Collaboration 2.0
www.ResolutionWorks.com
510-777-1166 510-814-1010 cell
If you knew the secret history
of those you would like to punish
you would find a sorrow and suffering
enough to disarm, all your hostility
- HW Longfellow
-----Original Message-----
From: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of
Tony Kortens
Say hi to Dennis when you see him next for me .. we are fellow ex-Outward Bound staff, which is akin to a secret cult ...:-)
Cheers,
Tony
- --
"Knowledge is wonderful but imagination is even
better."
- Albert Einstein
Tony Kortens, Ph.D.
Principal, Envision International
to...@tkortens.com
Ph: (001) (925) 939 4177
Fax:
(001) (925) 935 0717
******************* PLEASE READ *******************
This message, along with any attachments, may be confidential or
legally
privileged. It is intended only for the named person(s), who is/are
the
only authorized recipients. If this message has reached you in
error,
kindly destroy it without review and notify the sender immediately.
Thank
you for your help.
David Meggitt
It's really good to learn of your work with PMI (Project Management
Institute) chapters and to see your own article, which I will promote
if I may (see below).
Two aspects in your article resonate particularly:- what I call the
identification and formulation of projects covered in, for example,
your first three elements of the Agreement Template and the Step 4 in
the Resolution Process.
With perhaps Goal Directed Project Management in mind, with a focus on
outcomes and deliverables and an eye on benefits as opposed to simple
short term outputs common to many projects which fail, VNA enables us
to capture the essentials and dialogue about them. Also, for your
Resolution process which exposes ego, emotions et al, the step in VNA
which moves away from people and groups to role plays - in the context
of the whole (most important, this ) - enables facilitators to
encourage this stepping back from "me" to "us" and "we." This is
critical to raising energy levels to move ahead collectively - and all
without the paraphernalia of "change management."
The article Verna referred to arose out of the APM (Association for
Project Management) Sponsored Interest Group on "People in Project
Management."
There is a widespread view amongst experienced participants in the
Group that there is something fundamentally wrong with project
management in the UK - and it's to do with people issues (a bit of a
gasp, perhaps).
This is not to say that there are not examples of some brilliantly
managed projects by UK professionals.
Only last week, the People SIG was considering the impact of so called
"social networks" (emphasis on LinkedIn, Facebook and all those
types) on project management. If it works the ref is http://twurl.nl/6k6dn8
and you will need to be tolerant of mind maps. As we know, the value
network approach is the only one to my knowledge which combines both
the formal processes and relevant informal networks. My own
contribution was to point out that we just need to rediscover what the
informal networks actually contribute to project success and remove
the blinkers that the likes of formal project management with its
plethora of process and procedure thinking has tended to obscure. The
formal PMI and APM modules are unhelpful in that respect.
It may be of interest that I prepared both a pre conference and post
conference set of articles for a UNICOM event in the UK on Project and
Programme management in which I delved into the VNA approach in some
detail with some complementary insights in leadership and energy in
networks.
Disappointingly, I did not receive any follow up interest from the
participants apart from one notable exception, and this echoes Verna's
comment "one
two day event) and I was told by others that after my contribution he
shot back to the office. I learned the following day from a
replacement colleague that the VNA had given him some great new
insights as to how to move forward in a key area requiring IT change
(via project management). They were later involved in an acquisition
by a global financial group. For the rest, apart from military
strategist, VNA as I put it over was just too far removed from their
mindsets and expectations at the time to click in.
However, for Joe, the articles are available, and I'll see whether
they could find a place on the open resource site for general use.
Stewart, I'll be happy to link you in to the Chair of the APM people
SIG in the UK and you can cross fertilise.
Let me know.
David Meggitt
> 70KViewDownload
Stewart Levine
please plug me into the PM folks in the UK. I have a few more pieces that
probably will interest you that I will send along.
Joe Wharton
Dave, Stewart:
As you develop the PM material and connections, please keep me in that loop, if possible.
Thanks!
Joe
Joseph A. Wharton, PMP
Lafayette, CA
(San Francisco East Bay Area)
Laurence Lock Lee
Your experience with the PM audience is similar to that of a colleage
of mine (Graham Durant-Law) who has also done the rounds of the PMI
chapters with his unique network view of PM www.durantlaw.info and my
own dealings with similar groups in the alliance management space. We
get polite interest but really only engage a few. I used to dispair at
this but when we apply our own network 'lens' to the situation it's
not surprising. These groups are mature networks with a lot of
investment in the entrenched thinking of their own practices. VNA and
ONA can be seen as something that could expose the potential fragility
of their practice e.g. Maybe the project or alliance contract isn't
the be all and end all?
My experience is that the engagement happens not with the leaders of
these chapters but usually with the network fringe dwellers who
haven't totally bought in to the PM or Alliance charter and are
therefore more open to challenge and try new things. If they are
energetic up and comers these are the types of brokers we need to
engage to penetrate some of the more mature disciplines. Of course at
the other end of the scale I've met some 'retired' discipline leads
who no longer have a vested interest in promulgating common best
practice and can reflect on challenges with a more open mind. These
people are gold for introducing a new way of working given their
standing. Sorry for the long post.
Rgds
Laurie Lock Lee
Optimice
Sent from my iPhone
Stewart Levine
lenses cloud seeing and experiencing what's possible when humans engage and
connect at a more profound authentic level. In my experience that connection
can be lubricated with some guiding context.
Stewart
Stewart L. Levine, Esq., Resolutionary
Author: Getting to Resolution
The Book of Agreement
The Cycle of Resolution in The Change Handbook
NEW: Collaboration 2.0
www.ResolutionWorks.com
510-777-1166 510-814-1010 cell
If you knew the secret history
of those you would like to punish
you would find a sorrow and suffering
enough to disarm, all your hostility
- HW Longfellow
-----Original Message-----
From: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 12:49 PM
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
>>> Doublespeak is language constructed to disguise or distort its
>>> actual
>> meaning and furnish a pleasing or subdued mental reaction. Often
>> doublespeak
>> uses initialisms to further confuse the audience or reader. Here
>> below are
>> recent, actual examples of doublespeak introduced by the new Obama
>> anslation.
>>
>>> . Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) = bailout
>>> . Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) = war
>>> . Revenue Enhancement Programs (REP) = taxes
>>> . Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) = amnesty
>>> Meanwhile, among the early and most lasting business benefits and
>> advantages of VNA use is authenticity. Productive VNA sessions and
>> conversations are devoid of the pervasive doublespeak that infects
>> so many
>> organizations and makes them ridiculous, ineffective and moribund.
>>
>>> VNA discourse w/in the mapping, visualization and optimization
>>> activities
>> is about making sense and creating meaning. For many, it is the
>> first time
>> ever in their professional life they have had an authentic
>> conversation
>> concerning value creation and achieving positive outcomes.
>>
>>> We've all known for decades the so-called OD and change 'interve
>>> ntions'
>> are thinly-veiled attempts to legitimize existing practices,
>> policies,
>> processes, patterns and positions. We are all highly skilled in the
>> art of
>> preserving our positions, sometimes called CYA. We even have
>> sophisticated
>> methods like change management to deliberately reinforce and energize
>> organizational intransigence. Not to mention, because of the zero-
>> sum-game,
>>
>>> Parasitic OD practitioners thrive on using doublespeak and history,
>> legitimacy, interdependence, codification and so forth to preserve
>> and
>> sanctify ineffective org structures and patterns for their economic
>> buyers
>> and masters. (Don't believe me? Just try sitting in on the next ch
>> ange/OD
David Meggitt
management were, somewhat unkindly to priests, referred to as the
priesthood in the contribution I made.
The Chairman cited was quite ready to attack the status quo, which did
not engender a huge following, but, rather, a little unease amongst
participants.
I am encouraged by an inaugural talk by a Past President of the
Institution of Civil Engineers who addressed some of the failures he
had encountered in his professional life - all the result of adopting
current BEST PRACTICE promoted by the established wisdom of the day.
He called for the constant challenging of the status quo, which is
what we must do here.
I'll keep people in the loop.
Interesting to see Graham's particular network views as embodied in
business analysis.
David Meggitt
> get polite interest but really only engage a few. I used to dispair at
> this but when we apply our own network 'lens' to the situation it's
> not surprising. These groups are mature networks with a lot of
> investment in the entrenched thinking of their own practices. VNA and
> ONA can be seen as something that could expose the potential fragility
> of their practice e.g. Maybe the project or alliance contract isn't
> the be all and end all?
>
> My experience is that the engagement happens not with the leaders of
> these chapters but usually with the network fringe dwellers who
> haven't totally bought in to the PM or Alliance charter and are
> therefore more open to challenge and try new things. If they are
> energetic up and comers these are the types of brokers we need to
> engage to penetrate some of the more mature disciplines. Of course at
> the other end of the scale I've met some 'retired' discipline leads
> who no longer have a vested interest in promulgating common best
> practice and can reflect on challenges with a more open mind. These
> people are gold for introducing a new way of working given their
> standing. Sorry for the long post.
>
> Rgds
> Laurie Lock Lee
> Optimice
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
> read more »
Stewart Levine
which I naively expected would embrace my ideas.
David Meggitt
I promised to put my contribution to articles on project management
with VNA connection in a convenient place.
Look at http://davidmeggittlog.ning.com/forum/categories/project-management/listForCategory
for my three.
I'll now progress to find the connections with people for you.
Stewart, thanks for the great stuff sent through and to mention also
that I have found Laurence's work on the his Scorecard very helpful
indeed.
Regards
David Meggitt
Joe Wharton
Thanks for the additional insights!. I'll take some time later to review these.
Joe
Joseph A. Wharton, PMP
Lafayette, CA
> Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:35:49 -0700
> Subject: Re: VNA and PM