How does our theory become practice? LO23627

J.C. Lelie (janlelie@wxs.nl)
Wed, 15 Dec 1999 14:39:00 +0100

Replying to LO23614 --
and others

With all regards

(l%k; l^sten; >ct; f--l)

With all regards

(look again; listen again; act again; feel again ;-)

Regarding life, life is difficult: we're all practising our theories. And
our practices come to live with us. So we see what we want to see, hear
what we must, do what we've done, feel what moves us. Sometimes nice,
sometimes not. This - theory becoming practice, practice being theory -
may be a problem.

I or you can solve this problem by solving it. Finding a re-solution.
Notice that a resolution, any resolution, is also a practice ("this is
what I'm going to do") out-of-a theory ("this is what i think about the
problem"). The resolution of theorising practising: we must or want or
will or learn to accept the problem. Difficult, yeah, life is difficult.
Takes time, yeah, time is responsible for not having a practice all at
once once we're having the theory .

So, taking responsibility, your responsibility is the way. The other day i
was reading about Orestes, Orestes having killed his mother (a practice
out of the theory at that time, the culture) was haunted by Furies, inner
voices of the unpleasant kind. Orestes had asked the Gods to relieve him
of the curse. Apollo, speaking in favour of Orestes, said that the Gods
had constructed the situation (a.k.a. the laws, the society, the theories,
the others) in which Orestes had no choice but to kill his mother. Orestes
however exclaimed that it was he ("I") who had killed his mother and
nobody else. The Gods were amazed and relieved the curse, changing the
Furies into Eumenides - benignant ones. Not because of the theory, not
because of the practice, but because he took responsibility for himself.

Now, dear readers, this is exactly what you do when you Re:spond to
messages on this list. Any response will do. You may read, think,
assimilate and act to any message here in any way: by ignoring,
re-reading, deleting, questioning the contents or yourself, by reflecting,
by answering to, by regarding .... your responsibility of your own
actions. That's the way, at least my way, theory becomes practice.

Rick, thank you for giving us this graceful opportunity to respond to
each other. Christmas falls early this year.

PS 1:
Hi John: you asked: "In other words, how can we demonstrate to the
responsible decision makers that the learning organisation and
collaborative leadership can keep KIDS FROM KILLING KIDS." So my answer
would be: by learning that you are responsible for your own problems.
Kids have to learn that they are responsible for their problems - teach
your children well.
Parents have to learn that they are responsible for their problems -
teach your parents well.
Teachers have to learn that they are responsible for their problems -
teach your teachers well.
Responsible decision makers are learners: teaching by word and action
that they are responsible decision makers.

PS 2: I agree with you Max,
> dear Richard,
>
> thank you for pointing out different learning styles. I, too, don't see
> these as conflicting but as fertilising each other. One of the great
> things about this string is the diversity of background, communication and
> thinking styles. Some of the conflicts might come from the fact, that we
> don't sufficiently value the difference, and point out to each other what
> we learn from each other. This can act as a catalyst for trouble, if you
> think of conflict as an unconscious tendency towards establishing more
> differentiation.

and only would like to add that conflicts to me are the CONSCIOUS, the
real part, the en-acted (Weick) part of the tendency not to accept
differences. Differences that may well be inside ourselves, parts of
ourselves that we do not accept, and are therefore acted out. And because
they are acted out and the processes of covering up differences (between
theory-in-use (the practice) and theory-espoused (the practice that you
preach)) are covered up (because this would again require accepting
different learning styles inside ourselves), they have become
self-sustained and very real, terryfing real, indeed.

I suppose that the very question "how does theory become practice" is a
unconscious attempt (or an attempt of the unconscious) to solve the
problem of the difference between theory-in-practice and practice.
Therefore it sometimes look like a conflict between (groups of) people.

It is a conflict - a real conflict - but not between (groups of) people.
It feels for me as an internal conflict, a conflict of internalised
responsibilities: what has priority, the responsibility to my own
biological existence or to the existence of other biological entities.
Because we've learned that we depend on some - our daily bread, our
harvest, our herd, our family, our group, our tribe, our town, our county,
our country, our nation - and that we've experienced that we do not (even
sometimes cannot) depend on some - our family, our group, our tribe, our
town, our county, our country, our nation - we're in conflict. And the
voices in our head say that we should do something about it. To be or not
to be? That is the question.

While typing this it occurs to me that that question becomes answered the
moment you accept the consequences of your beed.

I take my grace

-- 
With kind regards - met vriendelijke groeten,

Jan Lelie

Drs J.C. Lelie CPIM (Jan) LOGISENS - Sparring Partner in Logistical Development Mind@Work est. 1998 - Group Resolution Process Support Tel.: (+ 31) (0)70 3243475 or car: (+ 31)(0)65 4685114 http://www.mindatwork.nl and/or taoSystems: + 31 (0)30 6377973 - Mindatwork@taoNet.nl

Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>