Thank you for the compliment. IMO you struck directly at a key issue
concerning systemic knowledge when you commented.
>I'd add, to this thread, that the likelyhood that anyone ever sees the
>_entire system_ is fairly low, and therefore, even when we think
>systemically or holistically, we're still only thinking about part of the
>system.
I observe that many downsizing evolutions result in releasing long term
employees while retaining the newest. I ask whether the loss of system
memory and knowledge of the longer term workers is balanced by the
reduction in labor cost?
I agree with you that
>This does not inhibit our ability to take effective action on the
>knowledge we do have. As we constantly explore the system, and attempt to
>change it, our understanding of it will expand.
Moreover I think we have an obligation to study the system in question to
expand our knowledge and the rate of knowledge acquisition so that we are
able to effect positive change.
Again we are in agreement for I believe
>Nonetheless, it is impossible, IMHO, to view a system at any given moment:
>Systems are constantly evolving (at least that's my theory), making it
>impossible to see the whole system at any present or future time.
It is because the evolution may not be in directions of value to the
system that the ability to perceive the evolution and make corrective
changes is so valuable. Further, it is because these evolutions are
occurring so rapidly that organizations must respond rapidly. In some
(many) businesses a six month delay between evolutionary event and
business response is much too long.
IMO organizations have two possible stances. Either they are able to
effect systematic change rapidly or their system is flexible enough to
absorb and respond to changes by the system's nature. In the first case
people are change agents, in the second they are subject to change by the
system's response. In both cases the organization will exhibit many LO
attributes.
--bhobler@worldnet.att.net Bill Hobler
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>