Re: Organisational thinking LO3344

Tobin Quereau (quereau@austin.cc.tx.us)
Sat, 21 Oct 1995 11:58:17 -0500 (CDT)

Replying to LO3313 --

Michael and Fred, your conversation is stimulating some
interesting connections for me. Particularly at the end of your last
post, Micheal, where you replied to Fred,

On Fri, 20 Oct 1995, Michael McMaster wrote:

(Fred writing)
> > I do not think of an organization as learning in
> > the same way I think of human beings as learning.

(Michael replying
> I don't think they learn in the same way either. I think they learn
> differently. The metaphor I use is that the cells, etc of an
> individual learning differently than the individual. I look for the
> relationship between these two to indicate something about the way
> that organisations learn.

This seems to be useful to me in that it highlights the difference in what
we mean by "learning" in each of these contexts. The individual cell
"learns" by firing more readily in response to certain inputs (at least
that is my rather basic understanding of what goes on in there...). That
is, it becomes better able to distinguish at subtler levels of input when
to make a connection in a certain way to those cells around it.

But the "learning" at the larger individual level is from the overall
pattern of this one cell in relationship to _all_ of the other
cells--those that also fire in response and those that _don't_. In other
words, the scope of our focus and attention--at the individual level of
the cell or at the combined level of _all_ the cells--affects what we see
and consider "learning" in an "individual".

The organizational level of learning, to me, is part of what distinguishes
us as a species from others, that is we share languaging and culture at
what appears to be a more complex (or at least more observable and
flexible) level than other creatures. We are created within and sustain a
family/group/culture for longer and more extensively than others that we
are aware of. It is precisely the mysterious ways in which learning occurs
(or doesn't) in this larger context of the group that attracts me now.
Different learning, yes, but as essential and intriguing as anything that
happens at the individual level in my opinion.

Having spent many years as both and educator and counselor focused on
individual learning, I find it fascinating to explore the various ways in
which what we learn as individuals is reflective of and interdependent
with what is being learned in and from our significant relationships and
primary group settings.

Thanks for raising this issus for consideration and learning....

--
Tobin
quereau@austin.cc.tx.us