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How does PLAN differ from other group
management techniques?
Although we are totally
immerged, agents and dependant on group management processes, we know little
about them. We easily admit however, that there must have been specific and
objective variations of modes in the historical course of the people's and
work's organization. The introduction of the knowledge of Writing, for example,
makes a milestone in the development of a society in this regard.
There is certainly a History of Group Management, but we have hardly
distinguished there the techniques and how they differ. Communities seem
to form their social rules in the same natural way that a young body begins
to breathe at birth, and then continues naturally. Except for rare occult
methods - known as Ceremonial Magic - it is with simple spontaneity
and a sense of imitation, that Organizations have built up, and enlivened
the industry of the world.
In this situation, Sociology appeared at the dawn of the 20th
Century.
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According to its own vocabulary, Sociology explains
that the current Age of Masses has imposed on us the perception of
a social link. Even so, we need certain tools, instruments - as for
example microscopes in Biology; and in order to make observations, Sociology
uses pools, surveys, training, as well as dynamic and analysis techniques.
Amongst the latter, the end of the 20th Century sees the
introduction of
PLAN.
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The
foundation of
PLAN
is not to be attributed to one group or person. Its development can be recognized
along the gradual evolution of a major occidental process which began in
1900 [*]; this is why we may speak about it, at that 'grand' level of 'Century'.
Yet, it is not this large scale that I want to stress. My present point is
the specificity of the technique of
PLAN
in comparison to other techniques of Group Management.
When
Sociology began, Human Resources Management developed by following the same
empiric way of our past societies. It imitated and duplicated
the former ancestral automatic procedures, as meetings, serialization of
operations and leadership etc... which were naturally applied during
milleniums. For example, with the Human Resources Management concept,
a trainer would now come in a group and act as a leader, yet without his/her
usual power - this would be called Group Dynamic. In other cases,
a Human Resources Manager would meet and know every member of his
department and act as a 'boss,' who would be primarily concerned with the
development of his employees instead of that of his own company.
In all cases, a duplicate of a certain actor function,
allows the group to built up a temporary replicate of itself; this procedure
creates a manifested reproduction. In Science, this is also
called an Objectivation. It allows for an observation and
constitutes for modern Group Management, the base for a reflection (and thus
an analysis, and sometimes an intervention, etc...). **
At
first sight, when
PLAN
enters in activity, this is exactly what it also does : members are extracted
from the group during its progress, exactly as employees are sometimes
temporarily extracted from their tasks during certain working days, for attending
other administrative meetings. Yet, there is a major difference in comparison
with all other group dynamics:
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PLAN
graduation can be seen in comparison with a natural function, as breathing
for example. A body breathes with no need for awareness. Only at a certain
point it can be advantageous to look at one's respiration; medical observations
for example require deep breathing, coughing etc... This is the level which
is reached by early Group Dynamics.
Beyond this, a healer asks
his patient to look at its own breath according to a certain rythm,
and to sustain this discipline over a relatively long period of time.
A very different level of observation arouses, with rapid and intense resistance
- nervous and muscular systems showing spasms and difficulties, opening ways
for understanding, and sometimes change in an adaptation with an environment.
This is the quality that
PLAN assumes. Its radical modification
results from a minute introduction: systematism and/or continuance.
The
nature of this transformation is easy to understand when
it is seen that former Group Dynamics had no clue for detecting and, furthermore,
handling the processes of resistance, though they are typical of the human
phenomenon. When a resistance occurs in their approach, without even being
noticed, a lapse is introduced in their loose technicality, while the problem
that they treat reorganizes itself. On the contrary, when the technique (i.e.
PLAN's triggering Compulsory Extraction
process  ) is sustained
continuously, structural issues suddenly become visible. Breaking-points
are thus revealed, allowing for a conscious change.
The reason why primitive
Group Dynamics took time before
PLAN, is the need for a scientific
degree in order to support this visibility. Resistance's processes are specific
in Human Management, and only with the background of biology that
PLAN brings into the Human Management,
their control and treatment is allowed.
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In
imitating, duplicating and sustaining its scientific
observation,
PLAN
discloses breaking levels and reaches structural layers. It is unique
in doing so. Consultants and intervenants of previous Group Dynamics had
no base for grounding, reaching and controlling such breaking-points processes.
They could not perceive the resistance which distracted them from objectivity
and limited them to the likeness of their client.
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