If Price wrote
>I hope you appreciate I share the sentiment but empowering ourselves to
>become activists about something we do not understand is a bit like
>empowering a medieval barber to cure say cholera, by letting blood or
>applying leaches. The shift of viewpoint I am trying to offer is, I think
>at least, subtler. It is that the 'system' actually creates us, and until
>we realise it we do not have the power. I am not 'blaming the system' I am
>seeking to understand from whence the power comes.=20
I like this view. I feel the distinction between people and system a bit
strange. In human terms, the system is mostly developped through our
mindsets, belief systems, world view, map of the world, or whatever name.
IMHO, those make us function more effectively than any formal rules.=20
And I am delighted to see the word "power" emerging here. Because most of
the distinctions made along the threads are connected to it, even if never
mentionned.
For example, "blaming" tries to discover if the bosses, the "system" or the
people are responsible; I would propose that bosses and people both
cooperate to reinforce the "system" by mutually adapting. The power one
gives by "following" is a reinforcement for the boss to overuse it, hence
moving away from the possibility to think in terms of systems.
Another example is unlearning. Of course it is a matter of personnal
dictionnary to decide whether the term is accurate. But the meaning behind
has to do with gaining power over our representations of the world.=20
As far as organisations are concerned, can we identify any real system away
from people ?
Frank Billot
fbillot@avignon.mm-soft.fr
L'exp=E9rience, ce n'est pas ce qui arrive =E0 l'individu.
C'est ce que l'individu fait de ce qui lui arrive.=20
Experience is not what happens to an individual.=20
It is what the individual makes of what happens to him.
Aldous Huxley
--frank billot <fbillot@avignon.mm-soft.fr>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>