Hello Don and all
After reading your post (I thought it was excellent by the way) I couldn't
help but think once again that "God gave us both sides of the brain, for a
reason". This is something I've been saying after observing the need for
both, left-brain, proceedural, rational thinking (which I personally don't
do very well) and the right-brain, conceptual, whatever type of thinking.
Being personally stuck on the right side of the brain allows me to see
systemic things much more easily than those around me, but my clumsyness
in the rational/reductionist area makes it hard to communicate or prove
what I see (especially to the hard core left brain oriented folk).
Your dissertation about Demmings System of profound knowledge was the most
clear I've read. I've worked at reading Demmings material, and couldn't
get past the language, but I knew that he had gone to the heart of the
matter much earlier in the game than anyone else I know. Senges material
appeals to and communicates most effectivley to the right brain thinkers,
and Meg Wheatleys "stuff" backs up with some science the ideas we right
brain folk have "known" for a long time, but couldn't express.
I refer to the right/left brain orientation so heavily, because it seems
to greatly effect how people hear (or read) communicate and understand any
given set of ideas. I personally am working towards some sort of balanced
use of both orientations, because as your post demonstrates, we can't
emphasize one to the detriment of the other.
I am curious about your mentel model (christian mechanical engineer)..
could you go into a little more detail about what that picture is about?
later...
Michael Erickson
sysengr@atc.boeing.com
On Thu, 7 Nov 1996, Kerr, Donald wrote:
> Does it have to be a dichotomy between the mechanistic-reductionist
> paradigm and the holistic-expansionist paradigm? Do we have to "give up"
> prediction and control to give ourselves to belonging in a living system?
> Being human is both is it not?
---snip---
> ... Can both paradigms co-exist? I believe they do in the
> Deming Inquiry system called the System of Profound Knowledge.
>
> Dr. Deming's inquiry system of Profound Knowledge (Systems Thinking,
> Reduction of variation, Psychology, and Theory of Knowledge) unites
> holistic thinking (synthesis) with reductionist (analysis) into a living
> dance. At the same time I'm reducing variation in current reality, I
> possess a "profound" outside view that continually expands my capacity to
> create the future. The purpose of leadership is to manage the creative
> tension between the two paradigms, not advocate one at the expense of the
> other.
>
> David Steindl-Rast, In his book, Gratefulness the Heart of Prayer and his
> tape Living in The Now, sheds some profound, yet common insight on this
> creative tension. Contemplation joins meaning (vision) and purpose
> (action). We simultaneously "give" ourselves to meaning while taking
> control in purposeful action.
---snip---
> Without theory there can be no learning. This is my theory. My mental
> model is a Christian Mechanical Engineer, this may be why I see the
> importance of both. In the body, the eye is no better than ear, they are
> both part of the living system.
>
> Have a Great Adventure!
> Don Kerr
--Michael Erickson <sysengr@atc.boeing.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>