Practice in At's Emergent Learning (1) LO17572

Winfried Dressler (winfried.dressler@voith.de)
Fri, 27 Mar 1998 15:15:53 +0100

Replying to LO17546 --

At de Lange wrote:

>Your reference to only "emergent learning" made me sad.
- snip -
>What I call "emergent learning" is the one phase of "creative
>learning". The other phase I call "digestive learning". These two
>phases complement each other. This means that the one without the
>other will eventually become a failure. That is why I wish to caution
>you - emergent learning is not enough.

What I had in mind was to understand, based on my own experiences, how the
seven essentialities work together to enable emergences to happen. I
wasn't sure about how to go through the different essentialities which are
so much interdependent, so I picked the emergence-happening bifurcation as
a focus.

I am sure that everybody on the list has according experience to share
(job applications, marriage, exams, become parent, break-through in
projects...). I thought it would be a first step to understand the
dynamic of these experienced emergences. A second step would be to realize
what was missing in other, less successful developmental steps. A third
and forth step would be: What do I need now, what does the group/team I am
working in need now? Is there any essentiality seriously impaired? Do we
need decelerated time (digestion, for instance after major changes -
TQM-programs, consolidation)? Or accelerated time (increase of entropy
production - new strategic focus, offensive market approach)?

By digesting this dialogue, deep and personal understanding of the
essentialities may emerge. Of course only if the dialogue takes place. A
critical role will play time. Although immergences will happen if the
process is forced, the bifurcation point will not be reached, if the
process is too slow. And getting a mail today, answering tomorrow,
waiting a few days for the futher development is too slow for entropy
saturation and emergences at bifurcation point.

So what can happen here? The process in the list will be digestive
learning. Digestive learning about ones own past experiences with
emergences or immergences. The hope is, that this will help to find the
propper lever to improve organisational learning in ones environment and
to develop the necessary passion for managing the complexity we all live
in (and not to become passive, or to try simplistic reductions).

>It will be very good if you also try to FALSIFY EMPIRICALLY (the
>spirit of the scientific method) what I have to say. It is through
>empirical falsification that scientists discovered how to become
>closer to the truth, how to deal effectively with dogma.

EMPIRICALLY, this means for me, by trying out my conclusions "on the job".
Of course I prefer to verify what you have to say. But may be I fail:
Either my conclusions or my assumptions (my understanding of your saying)
or your saying itself is then falsified. And I will check in this order.
There is no chance but to learn!

>My pleading not to neglect "digestive learning" is in terms of the
>essentiality "quality-variety" (rangeness). My pleading not to
>neglect destructive creativity despite the pain which it involves, is
>in terms of "associativity-monadicity" (wholeness). My pleading not
>to neglect your own self-learning, is in terms of
>"identitity-categoricity" (sureness). My pleading not to neglect the
>fact that the essentialities can also be used to destroy people and
>their creativity/learning, is in terms of "open-paradigm" (openness).

I am sure, that you, At, will have an eye on this. May be, I will have
mistakes in my assumptions by unwillingly neglecting one of these (or the
other essentialities). The reactions of the others will show me my mistake
- learning again.

Liebe Gruesse,

Winfried

-- 

Winfried.Dressler@voith.de

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