Replying to LO23730 --
Dear Organlearners,
Jodi Smith <jmsmith00@hotmail.com> writes:
>Thank you for such a lovely and inspiring message At.
Greetings Jodi,
Thank you for your kind words. I may have inspired you, but it is the
desert which enspired me once again. I merely tried to reflect the
inspiration which I have experienced myself. I still marvel in the ability
of the desert to inspire me.
>I realised that greenies (mostly) don't address the real issues
>for industry and that until we do, and until our education programs
>incorporate change management and learning organisation
>concepts little will be achieved. It is too hard for most businesses
>to change, they don't know how to deal with all the issues, and
>when you look at it from a systemic point of view it is almost
>amazing that we ever assumed simple education would obtain
>the improvements sought.
Yes. As Learning Individuals (LI) we seem to know enough to solve our
problems. But most of our pressing problems are caused as a result of our
ignorance to Learning Organisations. We assume that when a number of LIs
form an organisation, we have a LO. No, we merely have an organisation of
LIs. That organisation still have to emerge into a LO. Before it happens,
we will remain ignorant as to the causes of our many pressing problems.
Thus we will be incapable of solving them.
One pressing problem is "how to manage complexity". What is complexity? Is
it not the perceptions of all people of all times? If this is complexity,
then the desert without people in it is not complex! It is when any person
enters the desert while trying to perceive it when the desert becomes
complex. The desert is only rich and this is what we have to experience
in the first place before we try to form perceptions.
Greenies do not have industrial experiences and industrialists do not have
ecological experiences. Consequently, when they have to deal with each
other's perceptions, they do not have the experiences to transform their
collective complexity into a "rich picture". Keep them apart and they will
remain in conflict.
Learning without experiences causes individuals to have simplistic
perceptions. These perceptions differ so much that together they begin to
look like complexity itself. I think it has much to do with education
taking the learner out of life, putting him/her between four walls in
front of dead books who tells about life and then after some memorisation
and regurgitation of information, issueing a certificate that the learner
has acquired knowledge so that the learner can be put back again in life.
Whereas life itself is a never ending change with the prettiest dances to
it, to leave and then enter life again after some time is a shock.
Entering the desert once again was a shock to me. Civilisation felt like
modern educational institutions. I wish it was not necessary for me to
leave the desert again because the experiences which it offers freely are
invaluable. One can extend so much one's learning from it.
There is a Chinese saying that one picture is worth a thousand words. It
is true. Since also one experience is worth a thousand pictures, how can
we leave experiences aside when learning?
The most remarkable thing about Learning Organisations is that we have to
experience them before we can learn of them. It is impossible to learn of
them from a book without such experiences. Let us thank our parents who
tried to provide a LO for us in the family, even though they may not have
known anything explicit about LOs. Let us also thank our teachers at
school -- those who acted in "loco parentis". They have added to these
experiences.
With caring and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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