In earlier posts, I suggested an analogy of cells in a human being
(brain, etc) being equivalent to human beings in organisations when
it comes to organisational learning. The analogy suggests a similar
equivalence for intelligence as emergent from either cells or
individuals. That is, it is the quanitity, nature and connections of
cells from which intelligence emerges in an individual. We may say
similar things about individuals and organisations.
My question here is, what is the nature of language in all of this?
Maybe it will be profitable to consider that a major source of the
emergence of intelligence from cells is the communication structures
between them. I'm not an expert on this but the impulses and the
systems by which they enhance or dampen effects as those impulses
move through the system is a key part of what emerges.
In organisation, the analogy may be language itself. The language of
an organisation is what amplifies or dampens various messages and
signals and the intelligence - and learning - are facilitated by the
language (including its patterns and structures) and constituted by
the language. I would include in this the practices and
interpretations which have become embedded in the physical language
which no one talks about any more but which still determines much of
the meaning attached to action and results.
-- Michael McMaster Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk