Triggers thoughts of eustress - a sufficiency of stress. Pursuit of growth leads us to market consumption as anaesthesia and, as you suggest, voluntary lobotomy. We demonise sources of stress rather than harness them. Back in the day, when I was in the RAF, there were regular "tacevals" - tactical evaluations - which involved somebody turning up and saying something like "I'm a Russian, what you going to do about it sunshine?" All very stressful, but great practice. I sometimes think that we're not too stressed, we just haven't learned how to have a relationship with it.
You make an interesting point about time in the “understorey” I had immediate associations with force fed chickens and our need to accelerate life which perhaps is a product of impatience or perhaps a loss of the ability to think beyond the here and now. This leads me to a contemplation of the absence and/or attempts to eradicate frustration from society which, if you believe Bion, is central to the development of our capacity for thought. Have we in our desire for convenience, lobotomised ourselves?
Is it too optimistic to hope that some organisations would nurture “artisan” so expression can be found inside the organisation rather than external to it, or artisan and the way of the artisan antithetical to the modus operandi of scale businesses? Does artisan have relevance at scale? I’m curious in this tension as I see significant tension in my work between those who value craft and those who don’t.
It's a good question. I think there is room for the artisan in an organisation, but that forced scale can destroy it. There is something about maturation rates - the idea of the "understorey" in natural broadleaf forest strengthening and waiting for a gap in the canopy. Also something about the difference between artisans in a single scaling entity, and a network of artisans in aligned fields. Shareholders often require "artificial fertiliser", and we know what that does to the soils biome...
Triggers thoughts of eustress - a sufficiency of stress. Pursuit of growth leads us to market consumption as anaesthesia and, as you suggest, voluntary lobotomy. We demonise sources of stress rather than harness them. Back in the day, when I was in the RAF, there were regular "tacevals" - tactical evaluations - which involved somebody turning up and saying something like "I'm a Russian, what you going to do about it sunshine?" All very stressful, but great practice. I sometimes think that we're not too stressed, we just haven't learned how to have a relationship with it.
You make an interesting point about time in the “understorey” I had immediate associations with force fed chickens and our need to accelerate life which perhaps is a product of impatience or perhaps a loss of the ability to think beyond the here and now. This leads me to a contemplation of the absence and/or attempts to eradicate frustration from society which, if you believe Bion, is central to the development of our capacity for thought. Have we in our desire for convenience, lobotomised ourselves?
Oh and this also reminds me of the idea of “labour as dressage”…dressage = control.
Is it too optimistic to hope that some organisations would nurture “artisan” so expression can be found inside the organisation rather than external to it, or artisan and the way of the artisan antithetical to the modus operandi of scale businesses? Does artisan have relevance at scale? I’m curious in this tension as I see significant tension in my work between those who value craft and those who don’t.
It's a good question. I think there is room for the artisan in an organisation, but that forced scale can destroy it. There is something about maturation rates - the idea of the "understorey" in natural broadleaf forest strengthening and waiting for a gap in the canopy. Also something about the difference between artisans in a single scaling entity, and a network of artisans in aligned fields. Shareholders often require "artificial fertiliser", and we know what that does to the soils biome...
Maybe something about organisation as dressage?
Great observation and food for thought.
Go well :-)