I have heard a joke recently, that really puzzles me (my translation, I
hope you get the idea):
Two farm hens came to an egg producing battery. Said one to the other: "I
couldn't do that."
It was part of the answer of an afrikaner from Tansania, when I asked him
about his impressions about Germany. I am sure he would have responded
with the same joke to any other industrialized, high productive economy.
We were also talking about the freedom of the individual in our society.
He was implicitely saying, that he couldn't find much freedom in our way
of living, compared to his freedom. He found that we are slaves of our
needs and that our efforts to satisfy these needs are desastrous enough to
destroy the basics of life.
It reminds me of a mail from At that could be summerized as a reverse
joke: Two hens from an egg producing battery came to a farm. Both died
shortly afterwards.
Within the metaphor of this joke, what are the implications for a LO?
- Should a LO make the battery more productive?
- Should a LO make the hens happy and satisfied?
- Should a LO design the battery in a way to avoid a systemic break down?
- Should a LO enable their hens to survive on the farm?
- Should a LO be a farm?
- Does any of the five disciplines make any sense for a hen in a battery?
May be I am far off the limits of this metaphor, but may be not.
I would very much appreciate, if you could give my frustrating thinking
about this a more productive (!?) turn.
Thank you,
Winfried
--"Winfried Dressler" <winfried.dressler@voith.de>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>