Non Prophet in his Town LO24722

From: Judy Tal (judyt@netvision.net.il)
Date: 05/31/00


Dear Co-learners,

While browsing recent messages, wether on methodological or on ethical
issues, I can't ignore anymore the question that keeps knocking at my
forehead - How can I adjudicate on a prophecy, How would I know which
prophecy to believe and which to not-believe?

I'll believe any prophecy consistent with my own - it strengthens my stand
point, it raises my self confidence and it's easy (at least by the
principle of "least effort").

But how should I deal with all prophecies unknown to me?

If I happen to be in a phase (along the constant journey of change), when
confidence becomes boredom, mundane and rigid - I'll probably try to look
for alternatives - then again I'll have to ask myself the same question:
How would I know which prophecy to believe?

In my private search and re-search, I found out that the world is full and
rich with approachable prophecies. They can be easily found allover: in
books, magazines, e-lists, web-sites and coffee shops.

If so, then TIME becomes the major constraint I have to deal with, and the
question will become then: How would I identify a "worthwhile
understanding" prophecy when it crosses my path? Well, I detour here a few
Gedanken-steps, by assuming we all agree that understanding the prophecy
is a necessary condition in any approach towards evaluation, and that this
by itself is TIME consuming.

I think I gained a petite understanding from many contributors of this
list, and I'd like to share with those who were interested enough to
follow my steps so far:

I found a fairly good question (like a Turing-test), I'd like to ask a
prophet, before investing TIME into the process of understanding the
prophecy at question:
I would like to find out, what portion of the prophet's prophecy is
manifested in his own organization. Moreover, I would like to investigate
into the integrity of a prophecy by looking at an instance of
demonstration, before I'm going into the depth of theoretical details.

I'm a prophet myself (well, everybody is, to some degree), relatively new
in the field of Organizational Learning, and sometimes, when the weather
is nice, the wind tender and the sea friendly - I can make myself remember
that all conflicts and paradoxes that are transparent to my own eye, are
actually taking place inside, and not outside me. At these rare moments,
when I remember the title of this message (it's a clumsy translation from
Hebrew, and refers to the inner town - unseen by the prophet, as well as
the prophecy - unheard in it's own town) I can see how beyond the silence
of my own failure, lies in stillness a precious wisdom.

Wish to have the courage to share such instances with you, my fellow
learners.

Peace to all,
Judy Tal

Dr. Judy R. Tal
LCL-Learning Cycles (1999)
+972 3 6997903
+972 54 666294
judyt@netvision.net.il

-- 

Judy Tal <judyt@netvision.net.il>

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