Transference

cross-posted to Leadership and Change blog

Within psychoanalytic theory, there has been a great deal written about the phenomenon of transference, where the client uses the relationship with the therapist to replace something else, and becomes as it were addicted to the therapy/therapist. A related phenomenon also occurs with management consultancy.

Psychoanalytic Definition

Trust and Transference

Transference Among People Online

Metaphor as Transference

Fractal Loading

Fractal loading means that each high-level exchange also carries with it simultaneous exchanges on many smaller levels, and implies the coexistence of different but related things at different levels of scale.

The opposite case of monofunctional planning forces many separate and competing exchanges of the same type into a single communications channel, thus maximizing the capacity of uniform communications channels dedicated to a single type of exchange. An example of this is a choked highway, or the overloading of subway cars at rush hour. Not only is this inefficient, but it excludes other types of exchange.

[source: Information Architecture of Cities, Coward & Salingaros]
See also Phil Jones wiki

Customer relationship management illustrates the alternative between fractal loading and monofunctional planning. A call centre or other customer-facing operation may aspire to identify additional products and services to sell to customers. But this conflicts with a series of aspirations related to the efficiency and speed of a single transaction type – e.g. maximum throughput, minimum transaction times, and minimum queueing time.

Management-by-walking-around (MBWA) is an appeal to fractal loading. Knowledge management and trust benefit from fractal loading.

Fractal loading represents a major challenge to traditional bureaucratic assumptions about information processing and management. It helps us understand why traditional approach can never deliver adequate levels of adaptability.

Stress

Stress affects all sorts of outcomes, including biological fertility and workplace productivity.

There are many observable symptoms of stress - both in individuals and in organizations.

Stress is itself often a symptom of some underlying problem. Sometimes one of the most destructive things we can do is alleviate or suppress the symptoms of individual stress, while ignoring the organizational or social context that generates this stress.

More discussion on my website.

See also Stress FAQ (Georgia Reproductive Specialists)