Chicken is Involved, While Pig is Committed.

In one of the doctorate classes I am taking, we were discussing models for organizational change today. Peter Senge, a Stanford engineer, and MIT Ph.D. in social systems modeling, is famous for his Systems Approach to change. One of the things stressed in it was the building of the shared vision. The shared visions are to be spread through the process of facilitating “enrollment” and “commitment”. He juxtaposed follower commitment to compliance, saying that the former is of significantly greater value to creating the real change. When we got to the point of commitment vs. compliance, a fellow doctorate student has brought up an interesting example. He called it the “great American breakfast” illustration. The breakfast made of bacon and eggs beautifully illustrates the commitment of the pig vs. the compliance of the chicken. The chicken is involved, but it is the pig that is fully committed.

However, humorous the above example may be, it brings up a point to ponder on. Are we being merely involved in what we do, or are we really fully committed? Art Turock’s famous quote makes a perfect conclusion to my today’s post. He said: “There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”