Replying to LO29625
At de Lange writes at the end of LO29060:
> The LO will be needed to ensure that "speed learning" does not overstep
> the limits of joy.
... and near the end of LO29625
> In fact, after a "learningorganisation" has emerged, individual and
> organisational learning in it may very well still be of low performance.
> But, to use the Pythagoreans once again, there will be "eureka" in the
> learning -- excitement, joy, care and compassion.
Triggered by these excerpts, and in the spirit of the season, I'd like to
suggest a measure of organizational effectiveness (although I wouldn't
recommend using it as the only measure). I'll call it the Joy Index;
conceptually, it's a measure of the extent to which the members of the
organization find that their work provides a joyful experience. (I prefer
"joyful" to "fun", which I think has shallower connotations.
"Satisfying" might be preferable to some people.)
I'll avoid for now offering a precisely defined metric for this -- I'm
hardly an expert in the area. One comment though: however defined, this
will definitely be a "trailing indicator", and it would be a mistake to
try to institute organizational change specifically aimed at raising the
values of the index. Like a "sweet swing" in golf (or in splitting wood),
it's the result of a fruitful and live combination of several
fundamentals.
I also offer the hypothesis that the Joy Index will be positively
correlated with the sustained effectiveness of organizational learning,
and will be easier for members to report on.
Joy to the learners,
--Don Dwiggins "All models are false, but some are useful" d.l.dwiggins@computer.org -- George Box, "Statistics for Experimenters"
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