The Unlearning Organisation LO9903

BrooksJeff@aol.com
Wed, 11 Sep 1996 15:28:54 -0400

Replying to LO9856 --

> From: Dr Ilfryn Price <101701.3454@compuserve.com>
> Subject: The Unlearning Organisation LO9856

> ....minds, both individual and organisational,
> can be so full of, so attached to, what has already been learnt [or simply
> acquired along with linquistic/ scholastic/ cultural/ organisational
> tradition] that they are blocked to further learning.
>
> Frank Billot put it well:
>
> >gaining power over our various reresentations of the world
>
> For me there is something more profound here than simply transformational
> learning, or 'double-loop' learning. There is a recognition that our
> 'representations of the world' can imprison us if we do not 'gain power
> over them'.

If,

I just wanted to respond to your phrase, "attached to", which I like much
better than "full". First, I think Buddhism talks about "attachment", so
your phrase connects to that philosophical tradition. Second, my image of
attachment allows for (infinitely) many attachments to different
"representations of the world", while fullness seems to be an
unidimensional construct. Third, I see it as very similar to my use of
the word, "habit", indicating a strongly entrained sequence of behaviors.
Last, combining Frank's comment and yours has reminded me that our
perceptions are constructions (as are memories), and as such are active
processes that we have some control over.

I believe I've used the phrase, "evenly hovering attention", here before,
and it seems apt here. The essence of the concept (the same as
"emptying"?) is a suspension of judgment/deciding to allow for all
possibilities. A colleague once suggested to me a phrase to capture this:
"Don't just do something, sit there!" Action closes off possibilities;
delaying action allows more information to become available.

- Jeff

--

Jeff Brooks (BrooksJeff@AOL.com)

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>