http://njhessassociates.com/blog/2009/12/31/new-year-new-decade-new-conventions/ Musings of an organization consultant Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:39:27 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://njhessassociates.com/blog/2009/12/31/new-year-new-decade-new-conventions/comment-page-1/#comment-1041 Paul Bernard Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:58:19 +0000 http://njhessassociates.com/blog/?p=185#comment-1041 I freely admit that for a long time in my working days I clung to the old ways, proclaiming loudly that the innovations my younger colleagues were introducing were trivial and counter-productive. What I failed to see was that I was, without realizing it, adopting them right and left for my own use. While my methods remained substantially the same, the substance of what I was doing shifted, so that I was myself asking the questions which the younger generation had raised. And the questions you ask determine the answers at which you arrive. I am aware now that I owe a great deal to the innovators but that at the time I was too stubborn to admit it. Still, having said that, I think it's important to understand that it is always a cardinal mistake to throw out the baby with the bathwater. My young colleagues on occasion dispensed with the rigorous methodology we had made our own, and their work didn't profit thereby. We, the older generation, very often didn't appreciate the ardor of their concerns and our work more often than not slid off into the irrelevant. All of us need to express ourselves in the language of our generation in order to be intelligible. Equally, we must strive to arrive at competent translations of the language of our predecessors as well as that of our successors, lest we end up existing in splendid isolation. This I believe to be a truth applicable to both the professional and the private spheres. I freely admit that for a long time in my working days I clung to the old ways, proclaiming loudly that the innovations my younger colleagues were introducing were trivial and counter-productive. What I failed to see was that I was, without realizing it, adopting them right and left for my own use. While my methods remained substantially the same, the substance of what I was doing shifted, so that I was myself asking the questions which the younger generation had raised. And the questions you ask determine the answers at which you arrive. I am aware now that I owe a great deal to the innovators but that at the time I was too stubborn to admit it. Still, having said that, I think it’s important to understand that it is always a cardinal mistake to throw out the baby with the bathwater. My young colleagues on occasion dispensed with the rigorous methodology we had made our own, and their work didn’t profit thereby. We, the older generation, very often didn’t appreciate the ardor of their concerns and our work more often than not slid off into the irrelevant. All of us need to express ourselves in the language of our generation in order to be intelligible. Equally, we must strive to arrive at competent translations of the language of our predecessors as well as that of our successors, lest we end up existing in splendid isolation. This I believe to be a truth applicable to both the professional and the private spheres.

]]>