On Mon, 5 Feb 1996, Michael McMaster wrote:
[snipped material]
> The situation, if it's worthy of intervention is too complex to be
> defined by anyone - inside or outside. The situation is distributed.
> An effective response will be emergent from the dialogue and
> interaction (and display of that) of the community involved.
>
> I modify what John said about "a problem is someone's perception of
> something." The problems that organisations are dealing with (and
> that IM is applicable to) are problems of communities. That is,
> there are no personal, individual problems of much interest to
> organisations.
> I suggest that something occurs as a "problem" for an
> organisation as it appears in the conversations of the communities
> involved. They are matters of perception, as John says, but not
> merely personal perception.
This is very helpful to me, Michael, (hence my separating it out of its
original paragraph) and speaks to the notion as to whether organizations
can be thought of as "learning" or whether it is only individuals who can
do so. I think it is a very fine indicator of how the "emergent" level
(the organization) is _not_ explained simply as an additive or cumulative
effect of a contributing level (individual perception).
Thanks for the gift.
-- Tobin Quereau quereau@austin.cc.tx.usLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>