Replying to LO30449 --
Dear friends,
On this sunny morning in the quiescence of eastern Netherland with the dog
Terra near my feet, laptop on garden table, I was catched by the following
sentence:
> What a great pity is it not that in our organisations conflict is accepted
> as unavoidable. Would it be the same in a learning organisation?
I have no etymological dictionary with me. It is a pity because I was
curious of the deep meaning of the word *conflict*. I recognise one part
of it - *con* - wich means something like *together* . I was associating
it with *confriction*. Is it not a word which is somewhat overdone? Could
conflict exist NOT with someone else involved, like confriction could only
exist if at least two parts are involved, ofwhich at least one should
move?
Is conflict a mismatch? Like in an art painting sometimes a colour is not
matching, or the composition is out of balance? But even the paintings of
the Belgian artist Magritte are not in conflict, despite the very strange
combinations of atributes. These paintings work like the *PO*-expression
of De Bono, the mental provocation which triggers sometimes an original
perspective for a problem.
No, conflicts are something else, although it is very difficult to define
the thorn and its working(s). We are mostly able to see the effects.
Thorns or needles used by a nurse in a hospital have other effects than
the thorns and needles used by your compititor.
> What a great pity is it not that in our organisations conflict is accepted
> as unavoidable.
Dear At, I have thought of the mirror picture of the above sentence, the
contrary. Does logic dictates the following? "What a little pleasure is it
indeed that in our organisations conflict is unaccepted as avoidable"???
What does At means with his misterious question? Are conflicts in LO's
unaccepted, avoidable, or do (should) coflicts even not exist in LO's?
I think that we should direct our thoughts to the bonds and links in an
organisation. A conflict will brek a bond, or it avoids a bond. And if
this bond is crucial for the internal structure of an organisation, the
amount of energy necessary to sustain its internal structure will
increase. And thus less free energy is left. Conflicts have the tendency
to reverse the internal forces from tension to repulsion. And that is
according to my opinion the reason why conflicts are the internal enemies
of a LO. A healthy organisation, which a LO is, is able to deal with most
of the external conflicts.
And thus.......
Declare war to conflicts! ;-)
Leo Minnigh
--"leo minnigh" <minnigh@dds.nl>
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