The operation was successful, but the patient died. The adapted phrase originally attributed to Mr Mak Tian Kuan in 1970 describes the achievement of the implementation or the process in disregard to the intended outcome. The outcome doesn't really matter. The important thing is that the plans have been perfectly executed.
Applied to a teaching and learning excercise, most teachers may be interested in conducting the class according to the lesson plan, but then neglect to consider if the student has indeed learned anything. Perhaps, this is a common phenomenon, especially in this age of applying standard procedures such as ISO9001 to education.
Or you may have had a brilliant sales pitch, but no one bought your product. Organizations are not spared from this phenomena. The change intiative may have been spot on in increasing productivity in the short term at the expense of the employees' health and morale.
What can be worse than a dead patient? Maybe, a dead surgeon. The operation was successful, but the surgeon died. This situation can be argued in many ways and perhaps it may not be a bad situation at all. After all, an organization that has attained its mission has thus outlived its usefulneess. Simply put, albeit far-fetched, if an organization tasked with eradicating poverty has achieved its goal, then its existence becomes irrelevant.
Is this why organizations conciously or subconciously sabotage themselves?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
interesting....personally I believe teaching is about how teachers can develop creative thinking skills among their students. The more creative the students are the more successful they can be.
ReplyDeleteSame situation also should be applied to any organization. Creativity and productivity among members determines how successful the organization can be.
While the successful organization itself won't face any irrelevant issues since there always be another new objective and mission to the developing organization....Well just my humble opinion Sir.
Teaching is a learning experience. While teachers aim to change the learner, teachers themselves inevitably change. The assumption of a standard procedure is probably that the process is maintained, but that can be difficult and perhaps unrealistic in a dynamic teaching-learning situation.
ReplyDeleteIn that sense, organizations also need to continually change so that they remain relevant. Over time, missions and goals may become obsolete due to the changes in the organization’s environment. Good organizations respond to these changes. Excellent organizations anticipate these changes and take steps to address these changes. It’s probably an old cliché, but still worth noting.
hi dr....testing....testing...hehehe
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHye Dr. Versatile, sporting n nampak garang.
ReplyDeletewe can spell as many concepts as there are to change.
But how to stimulate changes and let alone to initiate changes. Primarily on the matters that you are discussing through constructive steps?
Hi Dr...
ReplyDeletei agree with u.Teaching is indeed a learning experience. i learn from my students, from the course participants as well as my colleagues in the process of building teaching materials.
Dr...
sometimes i go into class with the intention of imparting knowledge to the students but at the end of the slot i realised that i gain more compared to them.
A teaching-learning activity is about sharing information, views and perspectives. That is probably the reason why we come out of these activities feeling we have gained something. I'd like to think everyone involved in the learning activity has benefited from the experience.
ReplyDeleteHi, Dr...it's me...gggrrrr...! Told you this evening that I would join you, so here I am! Well, yup...I guess that's why organisations sabotage themselves. Otherwise, they would have to consistently move to the next level which could be very exhausting for the people and costly for the business in the long run. A good analogy would be relationships. If the only thing that matters is to make others happy, sooner or later even the "best intervention" would become "expected" or worse, "obsolete" because more and more are expected out of us... So i guess the best thing is to give the best in us, and whether others accept or not is something that we can't control. To me, that's a successful operation...and nobody dies...
ReplyDeletechowie!
East Tigress? - Solitary hunter, generally nocturnal, territorial but above all monogamous. Anyway, welcome. Glad to have you on board.
ReplyDeleteMoving on to the next level is an essential process for all organizations. It’s alright to have a desire to keep others happy as it is an outcome of providing a good product or service. But, as you pointed out, expectations increase and thus things that made people happy once do not give them the same level of happiness anymore. More is never enough and not good enough. Others may provide different products and services and people covet for things that they believe they could have. Hence, move up, we must, if we want to stay alive.
hey uncle...it is me dhivya....nice blog....cool....
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dhivya. When my daughter's school friend visits this blog and finds it cool, I am assured that this blog appeals to people across generations. Do check out the discussions whenever you are free. By the way, you don't have to address me as uncle here. Take care.
ReplyDelete