My most unforgettable L-O

Mike Gurstein (mikeg@nywork2.undp.org)
Sat, 22 Oct 1994 19:14:25 -0400 (EDT)

On Sat, 22 Oct 1994, Robin Brooker wrote:

> on 22 Oct Mikeg wrote:
>
> >> but it all worked because no one's livelihood or long term financial
> >> well being rested on producing a particular set of outcomes.
>
> In any organisation surely the outcome must be to the overall benefit of
> the organisation itself. The biggest drawback in most organisations is
Whatever the truth of the Brooker's short-termism observations that was
not what I was trying to say.

A useful way to get into the discussion about L-O's is to describe those
organizations which we admire for their capacity to learn and to pass on
learning. Interestingly Brooker's and my favorite L-O's are both
colleges of Architecture.

Unfortunately in both his case and mine the dynamic creativity which we
most admired was found in organizations where the participants had little
interest or stake in long term outcomes. Rather they derived their
benefits from the short term learning process.

Most corporate structures are populated with those who
derive their benefits from the long term stability and
outcome/productivity of the organization (whatever the financial
gyrations to which they are being subject).

The problem is whether the flexibility, dynamism, adhocery, openness
which we admired in our bencmark L-O's is transferable to more
conventional organizations. Anyone have any thoughts.

Mikeg