To add a little to what John Woods put so well, I'd point out that
"self-organising" does not imply good, success, or value. It just says
what it says - human beings will self organise. We may not like or
approve of the particular organisation that results at all. But that's
another matter.
In a society with dysfunctional organisations and dysfunctional people -
all of us to some extent as far as I can tell - then the self-organising
is likely to reflect that dysfunction. My observation is that there is
more individual dysfunction than organisational dysfunction. The
intelligence of the whole is greater and at least some of the dysfunction
is cancelled out or left out of the greater result.
One of the pathways towards increasing functionality, effectiveness and
value is to work on creating attractors which pull for what is wanted and
leave the dysfunctionalities on the periphery. (Notice that I am not
suggesting that we try and get rid of them all.)
Michael McMaster : Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk
book cafe site : http://www.vision-nest.com/BTBookCafe
Intelligence is the underlying organisational principle
of the universe. Heraclitus
--Michael McMaster <Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>