Читать книгу Lazar Achievement Psychology - Richard G. Lazar PhD - Страница 6

In our book, Beyond 1984, published in 1984, my son Scott, a Vassar College Senior, and I dealt with how close the USA came to George Orwell’s predictions in his own epic book 1984 published in 1953. The incredibly intelligent Vassar College faculty that provided portions of our book back then have been proven prophetic 26 years later on most predictions that they made in response to my request. I am proud of them as I re-read their thoughts now. I was also prophetic about one massive concept that I termed back then ... ‘Impersonism’. I saw it emerge in the 1970’s and apparently it is present in spades today. These are excerpts from the book:

“Most people now spend most of their waking lives at some kind of work. One view of working and personal life in this year, 1984, is that it has become impersonalized. The excellent corporations seem to be the ones that have minimized this trend.” [Peters & Waterman: In Search of Excellence. New York: Harper Row, 1982]

“Yet the others prevail. They tend to be characteristic of high-level management that has lost touch with the human needs and the creative energies of the people down below. And so, important decisions affecting so many lives are made impersonally. Robert Townsend has made this point effectively in Further Up the Organization.” [Townsend, Robert: Further up the Organization. New York: Knopf, 1984.]

“We see that in 1984 people need a more personalized and participative connection to their lives and work. Years of divorce, television, loud music, drugs and the mobility and non-availability of parents have caused ‘Impersonism.’ Guidance, coaching, and feedback have been replaced with ‘doing’ many things without solid, authentic relationships. People have adapted. They do not expect too much from their leaders in government and organizational life.

“In 1957, S.I. Hayakawa predicted that there would be places where people would go for sex without communication, and Plato’s Retreat came into reality in the 1970’s. They would not expect good relationships, he predicted. Has that come to pass? He believed, then, that extreme amounts of television watching would pull people away from each other. Many people have fallen into television viewing as a simple, relaxing alternative to personal relationships. Relationships at work or at home take work while television does not. Surely it has some merit and value. Yet a good thing taken to the extreme can and will become a weakness, and it has become that for many.”

What Is Impersonism?

It is the inability and/or unwillingness to see human relationships as crucial in work, business, and family life, church and in social settings. Technology today flourishes as does impersonal leadership in politics, finance, service and most human endeavors. In the book I was optimistic because I believed that people were vigilant to the phenomenon but now, I see that I was wrong, as I review leadership in technology-based companies. There are dramatic exceptions to this generalized observation. Only with the herculean leadership and management in some of the outstanding companies referred to in this NALS course did we see ‘Impersonism’ beaten. It is our hope that many ... not few managers will see the need to provide and promote NALS as the solution to ‘Impersonism’ in organization life for today and all time. It seems obvious, as I talk with 25-38 year old people who earn a living wage that they strongly feel that they have missed some basic education in learning how to communicate with peers and colleagues, customers and clients, neighbors, family, relatives and friends. Instead of nasty e-mails and simple, non-personal conflict resolution through text messages there are ways to be more effective. These ways are found inside this course in ideas, concepts, skills and stories. Assimilate them and live long to prosper.