Trist, Eric: An American/North American View (The Second Coming)

Eric Lansdown Trist was born in 1909 and died in June 1993, in Carmel California. Eric lived in a golden age of organization thinking and experimentation. While small in physical stature, Eric was a giant in his thinking and influenced many of the most prominent practitioners and theoreticians in his generation and the next, in organization theory and organization design. The list of his protégés reads a little like the subjects of this book. Those who knew him and learned from him were forever changed by his presence and thinking. This chapter reflects on Eric’s second trip to the USA and other parts of North America, from the mid-1960s until his death. After experiencing America during the Great Depression, Eric returned to the UK, to carve out his career and explore the world of work and the social psychology of people at work. He loved America and often found himself defending her to his colleagues. When the opportunity came in the mid-1960s, invited by Lou Davis at UCLA, Eric returned and left an indelible imprint on his generation and the one to follow. Those of us who view organization design as our calling, owe it mostly to Eric and his inspiration. Terms such as “industrial democracy,” “open systems,” and most importantly, “sociotechnical systems” became mainstream notions because of Eric. He pioneered the notion of organization ecosystems and predicted the turbulence of the last half of the twentieth century, with his colleague Fred Emery. Eric lived and breathed “action research” and “action learning.” He fervently believed that the wisdom in the organization could solve most of anything (a theme you might hear in other chapters, as well). Each person had a voice, and each voice had to be heard.