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ENLIGHTENED MANAGEMENT & the Organizational Imperative
A business book: Structuring organizations creatively and humanely
Available as a free PDF email attachment
Email request to Bob@cosmic-mindreach.com.
A business book: Structuring organizations creatively and humanely
Available as a free PDF email attachment
Email request to Bob@cosmic-mindreach.com.
| Book Summary |
Creating something well, that is useful to others and valued, can be a rewarding experience. When it is a
cooperative effort, undertaken willing between a few friends, this can be especially so. And yet most of us who
have had much experience in the business world, have found it to be a strife-ridden exercise with one’s
creative energies frequently stalemated by political infighting and stultifying bureaucratic controls. Why does
this disparity exist between the cooperative effort of a few friends, and the collective strife of many in large
business organizations?
The reasons and solutions outlined here concern the nature of organization itself. There is a cosmic
dimension to the way in which the whole of experience is organized. The reader is cast in the role of the
central character as a story unfolds about how to see into this universal system of order and properly
structure any business organization accordingly. It is possible to render its creative mechanics transparent, to
the benefit of everyone concerned—stockholder, employee, customer, and the societies in which we live and
contribute.
Amid the plethora of business books available, there is no other that provides specific practical guidance on
how to structure a complete organization from top to bottom for optimum results, regardless of the kind of
business. It is surprising that so little is understood in this vitally important area, while the business world
frantically jumps from one quick fix to the next, our social potential eroding in the process. The consequences
concern us all. The time is ripe for a more comprehensive business mentality to grasp and intelligently apply
the ideas presented in Enlightened Management.
cooperative effort, undertaken willing between a few friends, this can be especially so. And yet most of us who
have had much experience in the business world, have found it to be a strife-ridden exercise with one’s
creative energies frequently stalemated by political infighting and stultifying bureaucratic controls. Why does
this disparity exist between the cooperative effort of a few friends, and the collective strife of many in large
business organizations?
The reasons and solutions outlined here concern the nature of organization itself. There is a cosmic
dimension to the way in which the whole of experience is organized. The reader is cast in the role of the
central character as a story unfolds about how to see into this universal system of order and properly
structure any business organization accordingly. It is possible to render its creative mechanics transparent, to
the benefit of everyone concerned—stockholder, employee, customer, and the societies in which we live and
contribute.
Amid the plethora of business books available, there is no other that provides specific practical guidance on
how to structure a complete organization from top to bottom for optimum results, regardless of the kind of
business. It is surprising that so little is understood in this vitally important area, while the business world
frantically jumps from one quick fix to the next, our social potential eroding in the process. The consequences
concern us all. The time is ripe for a more comprehensive business mentality to grasp and intelligently apply
the ideas presented in Enlightened Management.
| CONTENTS |
PART I - ORDERS OF ORGANIZATION
1 - A General Discussion
2 - Personal Organization
3 - The Hunter Clan
4 - The Swidden Tribe
5 - The Country Town
6 - The Nation City
7 - The Civic Analog
PART II - COSMOPOLITAN ORGANIZATION
8 - Profit Distribution for Survival Advantage
9 - A Meal in the Market - The Organizational Challenge
10 - Questions of Shopping - Organizational Needs
11 - Packaging a Product
PART III - CHARTING THE ORGANIZATION
12 - Chart 1 - The Three Company Dimensions
13 - Chart 2 - The Operations Department - product work
14 - Chart 3 - The Construction Department - product work
15 - Chart 4 - The Design Department - development work
16 - Chart 5 - The Finance Department - financial work
17 - Chart 6 - The Sales Department - sales work
18 - Chart 7 - The Marketing Department - marketing work
19 - Chart 8 - The Personnel Department - organization work
PART IV - TRANSPARENCY AND RESONANCE
20 - Common Accord in Job Interfacing
21 - Common Accord and Resonance
22 - Transparency of the Creative Process
| SAMPLES |
CHAPTER 1
A GENERAL DISCUSSION
Organization. It is a strange word. It means different things in different contexts.
“How so?” you might say. “The context itself is organized in some way. So how can the word mean different
things. Organization is organization.”
“What about chaos then? Is random order a form of organization?”
You think for a moment to be sure of your answer. “Well, chaos certainly needs an observer to be identified
as such.” You are confident that you have found a handle on the question. “And it can only be known as such
in relation to order. By its nature, chaos must be one face of some kind of order. Otherwise we would not be
able to identify it.”
“Hmmm. Is that really so? Maybe the only order is chaos, and apparent orders that may emerge within it from
time to time are transient phenomena, a mere passing expression of chaos.”
You look at me like I was the accused in the prisoner’s dock. “Why that’s utterly absurd. You are being less
than honest.”
“Me? Less than honest?” I’m a little annoyed.
“Yes, you. There are ordered assumptions implicit in your statement that render it so much double talk.”
“Double talk is it?! How so?”
“Well examine the statement with just a little impartiality. Can’t you see that saying ‘from time to time’ implies a
sequential order of time that is fundamental even to chaos? Can’t you see that identifying transient
phenomena implies an observer with a sufficiently ordered mind and sensory apparatus to perceive events in
a spatial order of things?”
“Yes. I suppose I see what you mean. A good point. But then perhaps the ordered mind and sensory
apparatus are themselves just a transient expression of chaos, an accidental order that will ultimately pass
into oblivion along with the perception of the passing.”
You squint at me through your reading glasses. “You really are a case. Now you are saying that chaos is
oblivion. Can’t you see that? And oblivion it must be if it is the only order. Random order is a homogeneous
annihilation without ordered phenomena. But then we wouldn’t be around to worry each other about it, would
we?!”
“I suppose not.”
“Of course not! A totally random order is not consistent with the ordered universe that we see around us.
Such chaos as may exist is but one aspect of the order that sustains the whole of the universe.”
“And who is to say that this universe is real? There is nothing permanent about it. Why it is changing every
instant, mere passing episodes in a dream. The whole thing is no more than an illusion.”
“Why that rubbish is just more double talk.” You shake your head as if to rearrange your thoughts. “You
really are a master at it. Now you are trying to say that both order and chaos are an illusion and that nothing
is real. But that view must then itself be an illusion, and yet you maintain that it alone is real? Why, you are
trying to say that the only reality is illusion. It is a contradiction in terms. Words lose their meaning, my friend.”
“My point exactly.” I give you a big smile to rub the point in. “Unless you want to suggest that there is some
permanence to meaning that can survive the chaotic transience of events.”
“Of course there is. There must be. Unless we are all totally mad, we must believe that.”
“Aha. But then you must believe that meaning inheres in an order that determines the nature of transience,
and not in transient events themselves.”
“What’s that? What fool notion are you trying to slip past me now?”
“It is simple enough. You believe that meaning derives from an order that transcends space and time. This
order cannot be identified as confined in space and time.”
A suspicious expression invades your face. “Of course it can be identified. If I understand your meaning I see
you before me. Your meaning is implicit in your person and the words that come out of your mouth!”
“Not if I walk away, it’s not. Does the meaning in my words walk away with me?”
“Let’s not be ridiculous. I have a memory of course. And the meaning of your words is associated with my
memory of you.”
“But the event itself is gone, no longer a reality. Neither I nor your memory of me determines the nature of
meaning. I am not a permanent resident of your mind. And what are words but uttered sounds that have
already passed. Where is the meaning in sounds?”
“You can’t be serious. Why it is the meaning we have learned to associate with them. We learn spoken
language from the crib and the sand box. It is passed on from generation to generation. It is part of our
culture, part of our collective experience.”
“So far so good. In other words, you believe that meaning is determined by an order that transcends transient
events in space and time, just as I said.”
“Wait just a minute! You’re twisting things around. I didn’t say that.”
“Is that so! You said language was passed on from generation to generation. Surely this passing on from one
generation to the next is a transient event, yet the meaning implicit in language is universally understood by
everyone. Now how is this universal meaning possible if there is no common order implicit in experience that
transcends the perpetual passing of events?”
“That’s a very good question. But let me twist things around for a change. How is universal meaning possible if
there is such an order as you suggest?”
“That’s a fair question also. This order that transcends the passing of events also determines the organization
of events, so that although events may be different in space and time, they are all organized in a similar way.
It is precisely this characteristic of experience that allows us to learn from experience and also to benefit from
the experience of others.”
“What’s that got to do with language?”
“How else could we learn language from parents and friends?”
“Now you are contradicting yourself again. You said at the outset that organization means different things in
different contexts. Now you are saying that everything is organized in a similar way. You can’t make a single
straight statement.”
“There is no contradiction in what I said and both statements are straight.”
“What?” There is a puzzle etched in your intelligent face, now a caricature of itself. “Things are both the same
and different? There’s no contradiction in that?”
“Not if you allow of hierarchies in experience. A tree may have many different branches, but they are all the
same tree. And there may be many different trees of the same kind. And there may be many different kinds of
trees, but they are all trees. And trees are just one kind of plant.”
“And plants are just one kind of life, etceteras. You are talking about groups and classes, not hierarchies, my
friend.” You toss me an intimidating look of disgust. “These are just distinctions of kind made convenient by
language. You are twisting things around again.”
“Not so! There is an ordered hierarchy hidden in the classification of all life forms that is essential to how they
evolve and grow, irrespective of the diversity of species. In fact it is more general than that. The organization
of the whole of experience is dependent upon a common hierarchy that is implicit in the way phenomena
evolve.”
“Now that’s a mouthful!” You throw your head back and laugh. “You’ve bitten off more than you can chew this
time. Why if that’s true there must be some evidence in experience. In fact there must be some historical
evidence in human experience as to how this experience itself is organized.”
“In human experience?”
“Yes. There must be specific evidence in human experience.”
“So you want to confine the discussion to human experience?”
“Are you not talking about how we humans and our societies evolve?”
“Among other things, yes.”
“And you maintain that there is historical evidence in human experience as to how experience itself is
organized and evolves?”
“There is evidence, of course.”
“Then would you be kind enough to point it out.”
I overlook the sarcasm in your tone. “I will make an attempt. But you must try to examine the facts very
carefully, with as much fairness as you can muster.”
Note:
Succeeding chapters review the development of social organization from aboriginal cultures to how
multinational corporations can be structured for transparent insight into their creative dynamics. The structure
of business is properly a delegated extension of how we are biologically structured as human beings to
meaningfully integrate our experience.
A GENERAL DISCUSSION
Organization. It is a strange word. It means different things in different contexts.
“How so?” you might say. “The context itself is organized in some way. So how can the word mean different
things. Organization is organization.”
“What about chaos then? Is random order a form of organization?”
You think for a moment to be sure of your answer. “Well, chaos certainly needs an observer to be identified
as such.” You are confident that you have found a handle on the question. “And it can only be known as such
in relation to order. By its nature, chaos must be one face of some kind of order. Otherwise we would not be
able to identify it.”
“Hmmm. Is that really so? Maybe the only order is chaos, and apparent orders that may emerge within it from
time to time are transient phenomena, a mere passing expression of chaos.”
You look at me like I was the accused in the prisoner’s dock. “Why that’s utterly absurd. You are being less
than honest.”
“Me? Less than honest?” I’m a little annoyed.
“Yes, you. There are ordered assumptions implicit in your statement that render it so much double talk.”
“Double talk is it?! How so?”
“Well examine the statement with just a little impartiality. Can’t you see that saying ‘from time to time’ implies a
sequential order of time that is fundamental even to chaos? Can’t you see that identifying transient
phenomena implies an observer with a sufficiently ordered mind and sensory apparatus to perceive events in
a spatial order of things?”
“Yes. I suppose I see what you mean. A good point. But then perhaps the ordered mind and sensory
apparatus are themselves just a transient expression of chaos, an accidental order that will ultimately pass
into oblivion along with the perception of the passing.”
You squint at me through your reading glasses. “You really are a case. Now you are saying that chaos is
oblivion. Can’t you see that? And oblivion it must be if it is the only order. Random order is a homogeneous
annihilation without ordered phenomena. But then we wouldn’t be around to worry each other about it, would
we?!”
“I suppose not.”
“Of course not! A totally random order is not consistent with the ordered universe that we see around us.
Such chaos as may exist is but one aspect of the order that sustains the whole of the universe.”
“And who is to say that this universe is real? There is nothing permanent about it. Why it is changing every
instant, mere passing episodes in a dream. The whole thing is no more than an illusion.”
“Why that rubbish is just more double talk.” You shake your head as if to rearrange your thoughts. “You
really are a master at it. Now you are trying to say that both order and chaos are an illusion and that nothing
is real. But that view must then itself be an illusion, and yet you maintain that it alone is real? Why, you are
trying to say that the only reality is illusion. It is a contradiction in terms. Words lose their meaning, my friend.”
“My point exactly.” I give you a big smile to rub the point in. “Unless you want to suggest that there is some
permanence to meaning that can survive the chaotic transience of events.”
“Of course there is. There must be. Unless we are all totally mad, we must believe that.”
“Aha. But then you must believe that meaning inheres in an order that determines the nature of transience,
and not in transient events themselves.”
“What’s that? What fool notion are you trying to slip past me now?”
“It is simple enough. You believe that meaning derives from an order that transcends space and time. This
order cannot be identified as confined in space and time.”
A suspicious expression invades your face. “Of course it can be identified. If I understand your meaning I see
you before me. Your meaning is implicit in your person and the words that come out of your mouth!”
“Not if I walk away, it’s not. Does the meaning in my words walk away with me?”
“Let’s not be ridiculous. I have a memory of course. And the meaning of your words is associated with my
memory of you.”
“But the event itself is gone, no longer a reality. Neither I nor your memory of me determines the nature of
meaning. I am not a permanent resident of your mind. And what are words but uttered sounds that have
already passed. Where is the meaning in sounds?”
“You can’t be serious. Why it is the meaning we have learned to associate with them. We learn spoken
language from the crib and the sand box. It is passed on from generation to generation. It is part of our
culture, part of our collective experience.”
“So far so good. In other words, you believe that meaning is determined by an order that transcends transient
events in space and time, just as I said.”
“Wait just a minute! You’re twisting things around. I didn’t say that.”
“Is that so! You said language was passed on from generation to generation. Surely this passing on from one
generation to the next is a transient event, yet the meaning implicit in language is universally understood by
everyone. Now how is this universal meaning possible if there is no common order implicit in experience that
transcends the perpetual passing of events?”
“That’s a very good question. But let me twist things around for a change. How is universal meaning possible if
there is such an order as you suggest?”
“That’s a fair question also. This order that transcends the passing of events also determines the organization
of events, so that although events may be different in space and time, they are all organized in a similar way.
It is precisely this characteristic of experience that allows us to learn from experience and also to benefit from
the experience of others.”
“What’s that got to do with language?”
“How else could we learn language from parents and friends?”
“Now you are contradicting yourself again. You said at the outset that organization means different things in
different contexts. Now you are saying that everything is organized in a similar way. You can’t make a single
straight statement.”
“There is no contradiction in what I said and both statements are straight.”
“What?” There is a puzzle etched in your intelligent face, now a caricature of itself. “Things are both the same
and different? There’s no contradiction in that?”
“Not if you allow of hierarchies in experience. A tree may have many different branches, but they are all the
same tree. And there may be many different trees of the same kind. And there may be many different kinds of
trees, but they are all trees. And trees are just one kind of plant.”
“And plants are just one kind of life, etceteras. You are talking about groups and classes, not hierarchies, my
friend.” You toss me an intimidating look of disgust. “These are just distinctions of kind made convenient by
language. You are twisting things around again.”
“Not so! There is an ordered hierarchy hidden in the classification of all life forms that is essential to how they
evolve and grow, irrespective of the diversity of species. In fact it is more general than that. The organization
of the whole of experience is dependent upon a common hierarchy that is implicit in the way phenomena
evolve.”
“Now that’s a mouthful!” You throw your head back and laugh. “You’ve bitten off more than you can chew this
time. Why if that’s true there must be some evidence in experience. In fact there must be some historical
evidence in human experience as to how this experience itself is organized.”
“In human experience?”
“Yes. There must be specific evidence in human experience.”
“So you want to confine the discussion to human experience?”
“Are you not talking about how we humans and our societies evolve?”
“Among other things, yes.”
“And you maintain that there is historical evidence in human experience as to how experience itself is
organized and evolves?”
“There is evidence, of course.”
“Then would you be kind enough to point it out.”
I overlook the sarcasm in your tone. “I will make an attempt. But you must try to examine the facts very
carefully, with as much fairness as you can muster.”
Note:
Succeeding chapters review the development of social organization from aboriginal cultures to how
multinational corporations can be structured for transparent insight into their creative dynamics. The structure
of business is properly a delegated extension of how we are biologically structured as human beings to
meaningfully integrate our experience.
Enlightened Management
