REPLY How to promote good work (SD6567)

[SDMAIL Bill Harris]

Posted by  Bill Harris <bill_harris at facilitatedsystems.com>

>> Posted by  Bob Eberlein <bob at vensim.com
>> Jay was troubled by the lack of thoughful responses by experienced people, 
>> and so am I. Mr. Stevenson has not put forward any proposal about what 
>> should be done, but simply leveled criticism at what is being done. Without
>> thoughtful responses such provocations are indeed a waste of time and can 
>> only leave one with a sense of despair. 


Bob,

I'm not sure that's correct.  Sometimes (whether now is such a time or
not is certainly up for discussion) someone has to say that the emperor
is wearing no clothes, and sometimes that's the most useful thing (or
perhaps the only thing) one can do.

If these are indeed hard problems that someone is raising, then
expecting them to identify the problem and the solution may be raising
the threshold quite high and may inhibit pointing out the emperor needs
clothes when the person speaking doesn't know where the tailor
works.  :-)  I'd rather know where the problems are.  

Thoughts?


>> It is not because Mr. Stevenson is right that I, and I assume others, have
>> not responsed more forcefully. Rather it is because so many of the things he 
>> says are patently wrong, or do not seem to have a constructive purpose, that
>> there has been only silence.


When I perceive someone's idea is too patently wrong, I do sometimes
find it challenging to reach back and help the person who made the
statements along.  Yet I've far too often found that the obvious
conclusion I've drawn needs to be modified, once I've listened to and
explored others' ideas.

I don't care whether others have responded forcefully or not; in fact,
as you obviously disagree with Richard, I'm glad you stated that clearly
so that there is no mistaking the difference.  Perhaps out of this we
will have a synthesis of new ideas that will move us forward -- or
perhaps not.

I do care that we try to maintain a dialog, not a debate (and I don't
see anything in your comments that necessarily works against that,
assuming the rest of us keep in that spirit, too).  

Again, I'm not saying Richard is right or wrong or that you are right or
wrong; I am acknowledging that bridging deep, broad chasms is
challenging on both sides.


>> On bahalf of all of my colleagues who have been working for years and
>> decades to build up the System Dynamics Society let me just say how
>> absurd Mr.  Stevenson's claims are. I can think of no single
>> individual that has done work for the Society with the intent of any
>> sort of self promotion or any expectation of personal reward. I have
>> seen a lot of people do an amazing amount of work over a lot of
>> years. Those people come from around the globe, many of course from
>> the USA and the UK, but it is hardly limited to that.


I don't think anyone is questioning that; I certainly am not, nor do I
remember others doing it.  Lack of self promotion and personal reward
seems independent of whether or not things which have done have good or
not-so-good results.  (Again, I'm not in this email saying whether the
results have been good or not so good.)

What do you and others think?  I've got a busy week, so I may not
respond for a while.  That will leave others the chance to add their
ideas without my filling up the airwaves.

Bill
- -- 
Bill Harris  
Facilitated Systems
Posted by  Bill Harris <bill_harris at facilitatedsystems.com>
posting date  Mon, 03 Sep 2007 20:38:16 -0700