~ To learn Buddhist logic or philosophy as an academic subject would be a waste of time to any but the professional philosopher, particularly where that philosophy is made available by Western classical scholars steeped as they are in process thinking. What is suggested is that we rediscover the complementary discipline as a Western discipline, and this is entirely possible for us through Zen. To practice Zen we do not have to adopt or imitate Eastern life-styles at all.
The remarkable thing is that the modern business climate is the best climate within which this new way of thinking could take root and grow because it is both economically oriented and result oriented at the same time. We shall throughout the rest of this book be providing evidence in favor of this statement, and it is partly to lay the groundwork for this evidence that we shall pursue a presentation of the structure/process polarity and its implications. But this presentation is also offered because intrinsically it is a most important notion to anyone dealing with organization. We shall endeavor to show some of the consequences if industry’s inability to come to terms with this polarity in a later chapter entitled “Staff and Line.”
The structural dimension of an organization has a space-like quality. Roles exist simultaneously “alongside” each other. In organization as process these same roles manifest themselves through task cycles and occur in sequence, in a time-like dimension. An organization can be looked at as a space/time or structure/process continuum. It is a holon with the structural dimension providing the survival mode and the process dimension providing the expressive mode. The structural organization and process organization are therefore not two separate organizations: They both involve the whole company and are not two halves of the company.
A role and a company are isomorphic. This can be readily seen if one compares a one-man business to a large company and realizes that all that is done in the company is also done in the one-man business.
April 5th, 2020 ~ Due to the Corona Virus, over ten million people have applied for unemployment. For years, we have been hearing that small business is the heart and soul of the US economy. It has felt like lip-service, given the power and prestige large business receives. But now we see tens and maybe hundreds of thousands of businesses are hurting. The economy is pretty much shut down, although there are some signs of life. The economy is on life-support, they say. We are seeing how true the statement of how important small business is. It took this crises for me to see it. It reminds me of when my brother Mike died suddenly nearly 12 years ago. I didn’t see how I relied on him, especially when living in China. I relied on him emotionally, and I didn’t see it. I rely on different family members and it becomes clearer when you look that person. Does it have to be that way? I am hearing that this moment is giving us time to come back to ourselves–to take stock of our lives. Hopefully, it will help me get clearer about what I want to do and go for it!