James E. Hoburg asks what we think of Stafford Beer's Beyond Dispute.
I am anything but an impartial observer because I know Stafford well and I
participated in one of the early experiments that were part of the process
of working the bugs out of the methods described in this book.
The book is aimed at the general situation of a group of folks, each with
different information and expertise, trying to grapple with some complex
"mess" (to use Ackoff's term). Stafford argues that most approaches to
managing a mess pre-judge the possible solutions in ways that preclude
finding systemic solutions. In cybernetic terms, we would say that we are
trying to EFFICIENTLY match the very high variety of the world-situation
with the also very high variety of the people who are responsible for
managing that situation.
IMHO, Beyond Dispute is an important book and I think the methods
described in it will become standard tools for the learning organizaton.
-- BClemson@aol.com