Dear Organlearners,
Greetings to all of you.
Fellow learner Chris Klopper visited me today, just to say that he is
still in the land of the living, although he has to rush around among the
living dead. He has to make a living with his strategic advice. But the
plight of those whom he comes into contact with, is taking its toll. A
person can help just so much people with broken spirits and no more.
We talked about the fact that so many people in so many organisations have
such broken spirits that they have no hope for the future. They cling to
their jobs because they have to pay for their family's food, clothes,
rent, transport, health care and education. But in these jobs their
spirits get battered into a severely ill health by the very organisation
in which they work. They are like bombs, ready to explode at any moment.
I said to him that I myself think the days are over for people to try as
individuals to restore the health of those with broken spirits. Those who
want to care for their fellow humans, will have to do it organisationally.
They will have to work along the idea of holism -- the whole is more than
the sum of its parts. It means that when an individual person can
accomplish C creatively(!!!), an organisation consisting of N individuals
can accomplish far, far more that CxN (C times N). It is almost as if it
can be expressed mathematically by the power formula CxN^b (C times N to
the power of b) where b > 1. We may think of the formula CxN^b as
expressing the "power of organisational creativity".
The exponent b can be thought of as the "bifurcative capacity" of the
organisation. It is the frequency of getting to the ridge of chaos where
bifurcations happen. A bifurcation can result into either a constructive
emergence or a destructive immergence. This frequency is determined by the
entropy producing force-flux pairs in the organisation. The more they
flare up, the larger the frequency.
The problem is that the creative accomplishment C has two possible values,
either "+c" for constructive creativity or "-c" for destructive
creativity. Hence, if most of the individuals in the organisation create
destructively, say n of the N, then this negative power -cxn^b is far more
than the positive power +cx(N-n)^b of those few who create constructively.
This problem can be laid right in front of the door of the Management Team
(MT) when its policy is "do your job effectively to maximise our profits"
while it does not care a damn for the split of CxN^b into the negative
power -cxn^b and positive power +cx(N-n)^b.
Far too often the MT hires consultants from the outside to try and fix
this power split while doing self nothing about it. The managerial
practices of the MT stays the same (impaired liveness). In these cases the
MT belong self to the negative power -cxn^b. In far too many cases the
consultants self know nothing of the difference between constructive and
destructive creativity (impaired sureness). Thus they invariably push the
number n even closer to N. This increases the negative power -cxn^b and
decreases the positive power +cx(N-n)^b. Consequently the next wave of
consultants is needed to try and restore the spiritual health of the
organisation.
The only way in which that Ordinary Organisation can restore the broken
spirits of those n of its N members, is by emerging into a LO (Learning
Organisation). Yes, the very split of CxN^b into the too large negative
power -cxn^b and too small positive power +cx(N-n)^b indicates a pending
bifurcation on the very organisational structure of that OO. Each time
when the MT changes the organisational structure of that OO in any major
way other than transforming the OO into a LO, the bifurcation resulted in
an immergence. The profits of the OO may even increase and their workers
may do their jobs more effectively, but the bifurcation failed with
respect to spiritual health.
It does not matter what the will and purpose of that LO will be. One of
its major goals must be to restore the spiritual health of all its members
as well as all humans with whom it comes in contact with. The LO cannot
function as a LO while remaining ignorant to the spiritual plight of all
humans involved with it. A LO is never an uninhabited island in the sea of
human relationships. Since a LO is aware to wholeness as one of its 11
LO-essences, it sees itself as region in a much wider continent on the
globe with other continents rather than as an island.
Chris lamented the fact that there is so little organisational "-ships" in
all the organisations he has to work with. He thinks of "org-ships" like
leadership, stewardship and friendship. Each such an "org-ship" always
involves more than one person. It was not necessary for me to remind him
that the suffix "-ship" refers to something which needs to be created. It
comes from the Saxon ("Nederduits", one of the parents of my mother tongue
Afrikaans) "sciepen"=to_create. Chris wondered how many such "org-ships"
can be identified. Who would like to have a go at it?
An "org-ship" does not come by itself, nor in ignorance. It has to be
created knowingly. Its creation needs the will of committed and
compassionate humans. Such humans need to be on the path of recovering
their spiritual health. Spiritual health is not merely a "being", but also
a "becoming". This "becoming-being" or liveness is one of the 7Es (seven
essentialities of creativity).
Chris lamented the fact that wherever he encounters people in spiritual
need, they have far too few "org-ships" to rely upon. They are not aware
of how much a broken spirituality is related to a broken creativity. Thus
it is also impossible for them to create "org-ships". It does not merely
concerns people at grass roots level, but also the very echelons of
leaders. Living in a luxurious house, having posh cars and a worry free
pension do not guarantee a healthy spirituality, nor the recovering of it.
The system may promote a worker upwards in the hierarchy until he/she
becomes the executive leader. But such promotions do not imply a sound
creativity and healthy spirituality, nor any "org-ships".
The 7Es help us to distinguish between constructive creativity and
destructive creativity. They help us to avoid a split in the "power of
organisational creativity". They are also intimately involved with
spiritual health and recovering it. They are also necessary to create
"org-ships". Although these 7Es range over entire complexity, it is not
difficult to comprehend them. The clue is to grow or increase in each of
them.
Let us take as example wholeness which is not only one of the 11 essences
of a LO, but also one of the 7Es. Wholeness is not something which can be
switched on or off. Wholeness is rather something which has to increase
step by step or which can be impaired step by step. For Jan Smuts the
essence of holism was this "increasing wholeness" rather than wholeness
itself. He considered this "increasing wholeness" as crucial to all
evolution (geological, biological, cultural and even spiritual), so much
so that he thought of it as the force driving evolution. I rather think of
it as one of seven entities steering all evolution. The "driving force" is
something else, namely the entropic force-flux pairs making up LEP (Law of
Entropy Production).
Because of LEP, the entropy of the world always increases. This increasing
entropy is the reason why we also have to increase in each of the 7Es. The
steering has to keep pace with the driving. Increasing entropy does not
only manifests itself in chaos, but may also do so in order. The problem
is to move from chaos to order rather than to suppress the entropy
production. LEP cannot be suppressed just as the law of gravitation or the
law of magnetic induction cannot be suppressed.
To move from chaos to order all the 7Es are required. Should one or more
of them not have developed sufficiently, the chaos will break down the
existing order to one of lower order rather than emerging into a new
higher order. This break-down of the existing order is for me no more
clear than in the splitting of the "power of organisational creativity" --
the power formula CxN^b splitting into the negative power -cxn^b and the
positive power +cx(N-n)^b.
I have observed too many persons belonging to the negative power -cxn^b of
an organisation to still doubt that at least one of the 7Es is seriously
impaired. Here in South Africa it is usually wholeness which got primarily
impaired as a result of the course of apartheid. But I would be extremely
cautious to say that it is the same in the rest of the world. The reason
is that the 7Es are intimately connected to each other.
The primary impairing of another 7E may cause a secondary impairing in
wholeness. Trying to heal the secondary impaired wholeness into
"increasing wholeness" seems to be an impossible task. But whenever the
primary impaired essentiality is found, say sureness, healing that
impaired sureness into "increasing sureness" makes healing of wholeness a
much more manageable task.
In a LO the "power of organisational creativity" CxN^b will still be split
into the negative power -cxn^b and the positive power +cx(N-n)^b. But
because of the ongoing learning in the LO, the negative power -cxn^b gets
less and the positive power +cx(N-n)^b gets more. How? Should we increase
the value of the creative capacity C (the output), both -cxn^b and
+cx(N-n)^b will be affected in the same manner. It is likewise for the
bifurcative capacity b (input). It is only in n that we can affect -cxn^b
and +cx(N-n)^b differently. We will have to reduce the number n (out of N)
members of that organisation who create destructively. How? By firing them
or by taking punitive measures against them? No, never.
Those from n with broken spirits are helped with loving care to increase
in each of the 7Es while avoiding to judge them for the serious impairing
in some of the 7Es. Their spiritual health is an organisational issue
("mitsien") and not an individual (dassein") one. The difference between
an OO and a LO is that a LO knows it and acts accordingly. Another
difference is that more members of the LO get hope for the future once
again while less members become bombs ready to explode.
Do we have to wait for that OO until it has been transformed into a LO?
No, just one tiny LO-team is needed to set the ball rolling until it
becomes an avalanche. The smallest possible team is two persons. They will
have the "power of organisational creativity" CxN^b. Since N=2 and b > 1,
say 2, the expression Cx2^2 = 4C. It is more than 2C, the sum of their
individual creative capacity C. But see what becomes of the team when it
is a one member team. Since N=1 and b > 1, say 2, the expression Cx1^2 =
C. This is only the "power of individual creativity".
The LO-team or rolling ball is CxN^b where N=2. Perhaps there are only two
such people with a positive mentality and constructive creativity in the
whole of that organisation. Thus they will have to work in the context of
a negative power -cx(N-2)^b and a positive power +cx2^b. But eventually a
third member will be incorporated by that LO-team so that the context
changes to a negative power -cx(N-3)^b and a positive power +cx3^b. Then a
fourth member follows, etc. This is how the negative power will decrease
and the positive power increase.
What should this LO-team do to attract fellow members to their LO-team?
Create the "org-ships" written about earlier such as friendship,
stewardship and leadership. Since people are in need of these "org-ships",
they will become attracted by them. Once in the LO-team they then can
learn together -- Team Learning.
Chris, I had the feeling after your visit that you came for advice, but
that I could not give it. However, our dialogue set my thoughts in motion.
Perhaps the above will be of some value to you.
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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