Replying to LO26859 --
Dear Organlearners,
Leo Minnigh <l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl> writes under the
Subject: Process - Structure LO26859
>The thing is that some people have created a
>mental model of the Learning Organization as a
>earthly paradise. And thinking of the Paradise
>(with capital, the religious one), I realy don't get it,
>and I realy don't want to be there if only the good
>and beautyful will be there.
Greetings dear Leo,
I am deeply under the impression that you have pointed out here a most
dangerous Mental Model. Thank you very much.
Eventhough feeling very serious about it, I could not help to smile with
joy. I have mentioned before that for me many Dutch people exhibit an
astounding capacity for imagination on the one hand and verity on the
other hand. Leo, you have illustrated it once again. It seems to me that
your own recent geological field work did your soul good.
Obviously, it is not only the LO which may be thought of as Paradise. It
can happen to any kind of organisation. I remember clearly how during the
days of apartheid many leaders (economic, cultural, political) of our
people tried to convince their followers that the system (ideology and
policy) of apartheid will bring Paradise to our country. A peculiar
problem of apartheid was that we were too APART from the other peoples to
realise how much the system was Hell to them.
For the past several months we have seen how the Paradise of "dot com"
commerce bursted as a bubble. Many of the rich who sold this Paradise
suffered somewhat, but those who bought into this Paradise suffered most.
This morning I read an article in the local newspaper which did much the
same with the "Globalised Economy" (GE). The consultant in GE who wrote
the article claimed that we must not question the GE, but rather squeeze
our inner eyes shut and participate in it without any reservation.
I will not sell any organisational model, including the LO, to people as
the Paradise to come. The reason is that I will have to delete all which I
have written about my understanding of the 7Es (seven essentialities of
creativity) and how each have to increase step by step. Selling such a
model as Paradise would mean that within a short time we will have full
liveness, full sureness, full wholeness, full fruitfulness, full
spareness, full otherness and full openness. We would jump within a short
time all the steps in all 7Es which actually will take a far, far longer
time.
Selling this Paradise entails that we will undo the LRC (Law of Requisite
Complexity). The LRC says that only when we proceed step by step in
complexity will we find LRC as an open door. Each step has not only
prepared us to take the next step, but also compells us to take it.
However, as soon as we try to jump several steps, we will find the LRC as
a closed door. Selling this Paradise also entails that we will undo the
LSC (Law of Singularity of Complexity). The LSC says that as we proceed
stepwise in complexity, we will find the LSC as an open door. Each step
has not only made us more singular (unique), but also prepares us to
explore even more singularity in the unknown. However, as soon as we try
to jump several steps, we will find the LSC as a closed door.
The "being" of Paradise is for me so complex and singular that even in my
wildest imaginations I fell short to get reasonable view of it. Only when
I walk in the desert fully engrossed by it, I get a spiritual apprehension
of Paradise which evaporates from my mind as soon as I begin to think
about it. It is the same with the "becoming" into Paradise. When I open up
to the 7Es in my desert wanderings, I apprehend spiritually how they
cannot tell me all. I have discovered them in terms of what humankind
know. But I do not know what humankind still does not know. The desert
tells me around every corner what I do not know and how my expectations
fall short from what is actually around that corner.
I think that is with a LO like it is with the 7Es. The art of LO takes
into account a lot of what we know of organisations. I see in this art a
verity which goes back several millenia in the history of humankind and
its organisations. In other words, the LO is not merely imagination. But
the art of the LO cannot take into account of what we still do not know of
organisations, especially of future organisations. Thus we have to modify
this art of the LO as we necome more complex in our knowing.
This present two problems to me. The first is that it opens the door for
selling another organisational model as the newest Paradise on the market.
I think I have dealt with this problem above in a manner which I see fit.
But again I have to stress that what I understand as fitting and what you
fellow learners understand as fitting, need not be the same. Actually, the
more each of you give an account of what is fitting to you, the more we
help each other to take one step forward in complexity.
The second problem is to prepare ourselves for future modifications to the
art of the LO. I believe that here both our verity and imagination will
play a crucial role (and thus Dutch people like you and Jan ;-). The
verity is needed because we cannot begin creating with the void. We need
the content of verity to create with. The imagination is needed because we
have to create into the void. We need the void to accept the forms now
unknown to us in the content with its present forms. We need our
imagination to prepare us to become sensewise aware and even participate
in the potential verity ahead of us in the future.
Consequently it is inevitable that some fellow learners will imagine the
LO as Paradise. There is nothing bad, wrong, ugly or false with this
imagination. What is bad, wrong, ugly and false OF me is when I do not
caution this fellow learner to imagine more and verify more so as to
escape the pit of the Mental Model that perfect Paradise is around the
next corner.
>Maybe Paradise exist, because there is no future behind that.
I understand Paradise, in the sense of liveness, as the perfect increase
in "becoming-being". Thus the future of Paradise is even more of Paradise
-- what an incredible paradox! Paradise is like a tree which does not
produce its fruit once a year as usual, but once a month as the Revelation
to John on Patmos tells it.
>I hope that I have not offended someone. This
>contribution was not ment to be offensive. I was
>thinking of idealised situations, and my thoughts
>went to the extremes.
Dear Leo, I can only thank you for sharing your extremistic thoughts. As a
response, I ventured some of my own extremistic thoughts. But I know this
is a dangerous thing to do because of the entropic force- flux pairs
inherent to it when a fellow learner compares her/his own thoughts to
mine. Thus I want to plead with fellow learners, do not make too big an
issue out of this contribution because it is also not meant to be
offensive.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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