Change, Yes we can!
By HFP Reporter on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 |
Albert Einstein said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”
Here's a story on changing perspectives to facilitate real change.
When in 1334 the Duchess of Tyrol, Margareta Maultasch encircled the castle of Hochosterwitz in the province of Carinthia, she knew only too well that the fortress, situated on an incredibly steep rock rising high above the valley floor, was impregnable to direct attack and would yield only to a long siege. In due course, the defenders' situation became critical; they were down to their last ox and had only two bags of barley corn left. Margareta's situation was becoming equally pressing, albeit for different reasons; her troops were beginning to be unruly, there seemed to be no end to the siege in sight, and she had similarly urgent military business elsewhere. At this point, the commandant of the castle decided on a desperate course of action which to his men must have seemed sheer folly. He had the last ox slaughtered, had its abdominal cavity filled with the remaining barley and ordered the carcass thrown down the steep cliff onto a meadow in front of the enemy camp. Upon receiving this scornful message from above, the discouraged duchess abandoned the siege and moved on.
(Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Resolution by Paul Watzlawick, John Weakland, and Richard Fisch; this is an excellent book to read if you want to study how to facilitate change.)
Why did the army move on?
How do you think Washington could be changed?
Is the President Obama "doing the same thing expecting different results" or "is he facilitating change"?
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