The other day I was having dinner with a friend of mine. We are both doing the Philosophy of Management and Organization Master. He just graduated, I plan to do so this year. So we are talking about the lack of room to think within organizations. People just do what they always did and cruise on their automatic pilot.
My company Sparkers (sorry site is only in Dutch at the moment) wants to help, teach and inspire organizations to start thinking again and ultimately help themselves make their own strategic choices and implement its consequences. Sparkers doesn’t want to tell companies what to do, solve their problems for them or own their solutions.
After the conversation with my friend I thought the reason why so many organizations hire consultants to solve their problems for them, is that they either do not have or want to reserve the time to think, they do not value the importance of thinking or that they have forgotten how to think at all. They leave the thinking on crucial issues to others and run the risk of becoming sheepwalkers (by Seth Godin) in the process.
Sheepwalkers and organizations alike need philosophers, to create room for thought, reflection and contemplation and maybe even teach them how to do that.
What a great image: sheepwalkers!
"People just do what they always did and cruise on their automatic pilot."
I agree. Sometimes they rouse a bit and move from "same sameness" to "better sameness" and congratulate themselves for changing.
When you say that organizations "need philosophers, to create room for thought" - I have this image of philosphers with sledge hammers remodeling the corporate offices to actually allow thinking to take place.
Thanks for enlarging the vison and value of philosophy!
Keep creating,
Mike
Posted by: Michael Wagner | February 12, 2007 at 07:03 PM