The following contribution from the older, wiser, and much better-looking, Mr. Reams:
I was looking through a book and came across this passage…
“Russian anarchist Pyotr Alexeyvich Kropotkin’s Memoirs of a Revolutionist to good effect on this subject:
Having been brought up in a serf-owner’s family, I entered active life, like all young men of my time, with a great deal of confidence in the necessity of commanding, ordering, scolding, punishing and the like. But when, at an early stage, I had to manage serious enterprises and to deal with [free] men, and when each mistake would lead at once to heavy consequences, I began to appreciate the difference between acting on the principle of command and discipline and acting on the principle of common understanding. The former works admirably in a military parade, but it is worth nothing where real life is concerned, and the aim can be achieved only through the severe effort of many converging wills.”
Perhaps, this shift in approach is what is meant by “growing up…”? At a deep level, it implies the manager as well as the managed have to “grow up”.
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I think what Dad has done here is stumbled upon the Russian version of McGregor’s Theories X and Y…
..is it surprising that we see the same discovery half-way across the globe? Hardly. We’re all human.