STIA- Danah Zohar LO3093

Julie Beedon (rgwilla@ibm.net)
Sat, 07 Oct 95 07:54:24 +0000

Ref LO2996 --

[...Note: Bob's report divided into sections by your host...]


Hi,

This is a "trip report" for the recent Systems Thinking In Action (STIA)
forum in Boston that my colleague Jeanne Hazell and I just attended.
I realize that others have shared their insightful summaries of speaker's
messages with this mailing list before. We circulated this trip report
internally in IBM, and I thought it might also be of interest to some of
you, as additional "learning".

The best of the best (IMHO) are signified with an * bullet.

Bob

***********************************************************************
TRIP REPORT
-----------
WHAT: "SYSTEMS THINKING IN ACTION CONFERENCE: BUILDING
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING INFRASTRUCTURES"
SPONSOR: Pegasus Communications
WHEN: Sept.18-20, 1995
WHERE: Boston, Marriott Copley Place Hotel
WHO: About 1200 attendees from business, government, education,
consulting, etc.... 7 IBMers - from Canada, U.S, Europe

4. Danah Zohar (author of "The Quantum Self" and "The Quantum Society"):
"A QUANTUM VISION FOR BUILDING THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION"

Newtonian "Scientific" Mgmt Quantum Management stresses...
stresses ...
. Certainty . Uncertainty
. Predictability . Rapid change / unpredictability
. Hierarchy . Non-hierarchy
. Division of labour, or . Multi-functional, holistic,
functional fragmentation integration
. Power emanates from the . Many interacting centers
top or center of power
. Employees are passive units . Employees are co-creators and
of production partners
. Single point of view, . Many points of view; many paths
one best way from A to B
. Competition . Cooperation
. Inflexible; heavily . Responsive and flexible;
bureaucratic; control hands off
. Efficiency . Relationship, meaning, and
service; value driven
. Top-down, "reactive" . Bottom-up; "experimentation"

. We need both, not one or the other - we need - need a dialogue
between the two sides, above

. We are more creative when we are asking questions than when
we are providing answers. Our questions determine the answers.

. Sleep and meditation promote holistic associations, versus the
fragmentation we experience/require when we are awake.


Our report is distilled from a 700 page handout and many pages of
additional notes. Some of these ideas are great, some are strange,
but all are stimulating. Hopefully it has been worth your while to
scan them.
Bob Willard & Jeanne Hazell
IBM Canada, Leadership Development

--
Regards,                                                                       
R. G. (Bob) Willard                                                            
IBM Canada, Leadership Development              
rgwilla@ibm.net