Andrew writes:
> What really should be the FOCUS : LEARNING or Safety? LEARNING
> ORGANIZATION ; SAFE Learning Organization ; what about "Risk-free learning
> organization" "No pain, No Suffering Learning Organization" "Peaceful,
> forever peace, learning organization"
>
> LEARNING, IMHO, denotes something like enlightenment, great discovery,
> fulfilling, self-actualization, win-win, vision crystallization process.
> benefiting mankind etc. etc.
Yesterday I had an E-Mail conversation with a really good friend about the
topic of "being ourselves." I wrote, in part:
"But as the realization and expression of my love has increased, so has
the pain I feel. To feel the type of love the inspires tenderness has
opened me up to feel pain more poignantly. It is in this paradox that I
believe we find happiness. To be happy is to be able to simultaneously
feel tenderness and pain. The co-existence of these two emotions combine
to create an "emotional overtone," which is more than the sum of the two
emotions."
I used to think that if I could get rid of the "pain" that is incidental
to life, that I could learn to live a "happy" life. What a misguided
notion. Pain is good. It inspires us to reflect deeply on events and
circumstances. More importantly, if we never felt pain we would also never
feel love.
I think the same type of relationship exists between learning and saftey
(or, jeopardy). Sometimes the deepest learning experiences occur when we
have to work through an unsafe circumstance, or when we confront problems
that challenge us to the very core. There's something magical about being
challenged to the point that we pass the breaking point without breaking!
The only way to do this, that I know of, is to learn.
At the same time I think that tyranical environments totally discourage
real learning. This seems to be the point, at least to me. Last week I
read "The Politics of Diplomacy," by James Baker III, who was President
Bush's Secretary of State. In recounting the events leading up to the
Persian Gulf war, he noted that he didn't believe that Tariq Aziz, Iraq's
Foreign Minister, was telling Saddam Hussein everything that was being
said. Why should he, reasoned Baker. Hussein has been known to execute
ministers who bore bad news. I suppose we'll never know if Aziz came clean
with Hussein, but if not it's entirely possible that we had a war in which
thousands of people died because there wasn't a safe environment in which
real communication could occur.
I see this dynamic in organizations, especially those organizations that
have become a power culture. It's what I'm now calling "The Aziz
Syndrome," which I think is form of organizational sickness.
-- Ben Compton The Accidental Learning Group Work: (801) 222-6178 Improving Business through Science and Art bcompton@geocities.com http://www.e-ad.com/ben/BEN.HTMLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>