Self-Motivated Teams
The data processing department of [a large company], more specifically
the high-level leaders thereof, decided to implement what was euphamistically
called "self-motivated teams", and which is better described as "a leaderless
business environment". They paid a Tim Robbins-like guy a million dollars
to brainwa...er, enlighten the employees and teach them how to operate
effectively in such an environment. It took 30 days to process...er, train
everyone. When faced with the required task of selecting a "coach" for
each "team", everyone did the politically expedient thing and nominated
their old bosses to take care of tasks which did require something akin
to leadership. In other words, nothing changed. Moral of the story: communes
don't work when nobody believes in it.
ctd 7/97