Thanks for the advice on this issue Dave, I will try it out and report my
experiences to You.
As for the "Intelligence is the ability to make distinctions" definition.
I worked very intensely with a guy who really knew his metaphysics (the
classical kind), Charles Berner for several years, and he instilled this
definition in me through countless discussions and debate.
However, he took a different spin from most people, which I also agree
with, on what making a distinction really means. Our view is that making
distinctions is a process which as it refines and becomes more subtle, it
goes deeper and deeper within and without. Ultimately, there are
fundamental distinctions which can be made (although this sounds
reductionistic like some Theories of Everything, it reall isn't); these
are distinctions between what and who We truly are as ultimate individuals
(not to be confused with what the Buddhists warn about which are the
sublter aspects of the ego). Which brings me to your "(almost ex-) wife"
and the learning organization....
I have been down this road Dave, more than once. Let me share my view of
it with You for it really does have important things to say about making
distinctions in my own life, and I believe for the nurturing of learning
organizations. I found that I would often place so much importance on my
intellectual distinctions that I lost contact with my partner... that is,
I would lose the distinction of her conscious presence... this would be
reported to me as "Speak from your heart." or "You go off on another
planet somewhere." This often would frustrate me no end.... but now I can
report to You that I am "getting it" more and more... and I am glad my
partners persisted with me.
Now, more than before, I am able to keep making a distinction between the
conscious presence of my partner or child, and just allow the
communication to come more spontaneously out of the contact which this
kind of distinction enables. I am also trusting much more what comes out
of my mouth in this process, and let go of my neurotic tendencies to rely
almost solely on my intellect for survival. This transformation feels
like it has only just begun for there are still many times in which I am
caught out by it, but I am thankful for the support which I have for it.
The marvelous thing is that paradoxically, when I hold the distinctions of
our conscious awareness, that our shared unitystarts shining through, and
a shared joyful play results.
The best articulation of this which I have experienced, is the
presentations of Humberto Maturana (the Chilean cybernetician), which
appeared to me to be only limited by his stuckness in some fixed ideas
about the authority of spirituality.
The point for Learning Organizations I believe, is again from the lack of
wholeness in the ways in which conventional organizations measure their
performance. Instead of these measurements serving to benefit the entire
organization, and its individuals, they only serve to benefit some
obsolete and stuck attitudes, whose reinforcement from corporate culture
makes them difficult to nudge. In a nutshell these attitudes are for us,
i) that individual performance should be at maximum efficiency,
Independent of the indivdual's connections to the rest of the
organization, ii) not matching measurements to an individual's sphere of
responsibility, iii) not rewarding how smoothly an individual passes work
to the downstream connections, and iv) believing that averaging and
aggregation is always a valid method to achieve an overview of the
organization's performance.
It is in iv) especially, that the misleading distinctions which are
generated by conventional measurement and accounting practice ignore the
importance of the individual's contribution to the organization. In times
of recession and minimal growth, this practice does irreparable damage to
people without really accounting for the bottom line. It seems to me that
this is analogous to the situation where I think that my intellectual
distinction is more important than contact with the individual actually
facing me.
Thanks for the stimulation.
-- Doug Seeley: compuserve 100433,133... Fax: +41 22 756 3957 InterDynamics Pty. Ltd. (Australia) in Geneva, Switzerland "Integrity is not merely an ideal; it is the only reality."
Thanks, again....