Art, I am asking a *provocative question*. That is to say, I'm not
*saying* anything but asking with an intention in mind. That does imply
some presuppositions as sources of the question. Those presupposition are
mainly that the community I addressed the question to have certain
presuppositions.
If the question is/was useful, as you say, then I'm satisfied.
> I agree your question is useful. Very useful to me. I am just trying to
> understand exactly what you were asking...
> I could have asked it better this way:
> Are you saying that the L.O. community tends to think
> that every successful organizational change effort must have a
> "learning organization" or "learning disciplines" component?
This question would not be sufficiently provocative for my
intentions. I would expect the community to answer "Yes" but, framed
this way, I would also agree. The only caveat would be that the
terms "learning organisation" and "learning disciplines" not be taken
to rigidly mean "what Senge said" or some similar translation.
"Successful change" and "learning" are a tautology for me.
What I'm pointing at are the presuppositions about individual,
organisation, corporation, formal terms used (a la Senge) and the
frequent lack of congruence between beliefs, effective action and
results. What I want considered is that when the thinking and action
set don't produce the desired results, do you look to that set or do
you blame someone/something else?
For example, I know many who believe that "arriving at a common
vision" is important. And many of these point to some experience
that they had of doing this and things got better - at least
personally and at least for a while.
Few of these, because they live in a culture which creates an
unchallengeable aura around shared vision, are able to even consider
that the positive experience and even lasting gain may have nothing
to do with the intention or the result (shared vision) but can be
solely attributed to the event of people talking together about what
mattered to them - about their intentions and aspirations and values.
-- Michael McMaster Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk