Replying to LO28211 --
Dear Organlearners,
John Dicus <jdicus@ourfuture.com> writes
>I was being a bit general or philosophic when I said
>systems can't be predicted or controlled with any
>regularity.
(snip)
>I'm going to try and see what was underneath my
>comment, and as I begin, I suspect my own
>experiences have much to do with it. Please bear
>with me a bit.
>
>Most of my life experience has dealt with systems
>that we tend to call high-performance. Stuff like
>space-flight systems, or aircraft systems, or people
>trying to do things never done before.
Greetings dear John,
Thank you for your digging. It gives those fellow learners interested in
the 7Es (seven essentialities of creativity) a marvelous account of how
much spareness ("quantity-limit") played a role in your own creative work.
You ask
(snip)
>How close to the (an) edge is a team, a family, an
>organization?
>
>Some relevant questions: How far away is breakdown?
>Can you reach your esired goal before reaching
>breakdown? How long can you dwell at your goal,
>or desired state? How sustainable is that state? At
>what cost? If you leave voluntarily (draw back) or
>otherwise (forced back), can you return? Is return to
>the high performing state by intention or by "accident?"
>How catastrophic is (will be) the breakdown? Can you
>recover? At what cost?
Perhaps the following will help you to answer these questions to some
extend. Living systems, unlike mechanical systems, have the remarkable
ability to repair themselves as soon as damage is done. Should we fail to
observe this fact, we will fail to see how the system is becoming damaged
until the damaging exceeds the repearing. Then it is usually to late to
prevent the catastrophic break down.
A certain species of succulent plants, Adenia pecuellii from the Namib
desert, taught me this lesson to watch for the reparing some 25 years ago.
(I have given Adrew such a plant as gift). Should you cut its roots, it
takes them 2 years to heal. Any watering in those two years will introduce
fungus into wound so that the plant will inevitably rot.
This reparing of damage is a most important feature of Learning
Organisations. Do any fellow learner care to write about it?
>Thanks for allowing me to dig down inside.
Thanks for showing us the digging.
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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