Michael, many thanks for your kind words - they were much appreciated.
With regard to your comments.
> The individual ant doesn't understand the colony but it works fine.
> The point is that this is THE condition of complex adaptive systems.
> However, in these other biological instances, there are connections -
> structural couplings to use Varela's phrase - that already exist. In
> human organisations these are not of the same kind. They do exist but we
>are largely unaware of them. I offer language and practices as the key to
>this connection. NOT formal organisation as we think of it
> Which leads to the second point:
>> Initially, the main connections in the organisation are those described by
>> the formal organisation.
> I disagree that the formal are EVER the main connections. In the
> beginning, of most corporations at least, there are a few people who
> relate to each other in mainly implicit and seldom formal ways.
I like this a lot and would love to think you're right when you "disagree
that the formal are EVER the main connections".
I think the real point is that whilst organisations exist at both a formal
and informal level, the power and importance of the informal organisation
(which I think you prefer to call a community of practice and others call
a network organisation) seems to be underestimated - particularly
vis-a-vis LOs and the management of change.
In effect, you seem to be making this point even more strongly than I am.
I think Ralph Stacey is correct when, borrowing Kuhn's terminology to
distinguish between ordinary and extraordinary science, he opines that it
is the informal organisation that is concerned with extraordinary
management. (This is developed in more detail on the "Change Management"
page on my web site).
A consequence of this is that additional weight is given to Chester
Barnard's view that the role of the executive is to secure the commitment
and actively manage the informal organisation, whilst simultaneously
ensuring that the organisation achieves its economic goals.
Thanks for your insights.
Best wishes.
Julian Macnamara
Glandore Associates
100317,2417@compuserve.com
<http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/glandore
--Julian Macnamara <100317.2417@CompuServe.COM>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>