Replying to LO24560 --
Dear Organlearners,
Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> writes
in reply to the question:
>>I am currently working in a college. How do I apply this
>>philosophy in this organisation?
>
>Respect others. Be honest. Consider the overall good.
>Speak up when it matters. Reflect on your own thinking
>and why it is the way it is. Don't try to control other people;
>respect their freedom to choose. Nothing else will create
>real commitment.
Greetings Rick,
There is little difference between good philosophy and wisdom. The above
illustrates it once again. Thank you.
Wisdom is the like the highest trees in a forest because every person can
see them. It took ages for that tree to grow so high. It is impossible to
reach wisdom without the complexity of learning -- climbing that tree.
To illustrate -- what do we have to learn to recognise the sheer
wisdom in "Don't try to control other people"? I do mean "sheer
wisdom in" and not merely "meaning of". It involves asking
questions such as the following and answering all of them:
1 Why do some people want to control other people?
2 How do some people control other people?
3 What happens when some people control other people?
4 Why should the control of some people over other people be
avoided?
5 How can the control of some people over other people be
avoided?
6 How can a person learn self-control?
7 What is self-control?
8 Why is self-control important?
9 When will self-control become endangered?
10 Why does self-control cost far less money?
I have asked merely 10 questions. But I have done it for a
definite reason.
1 How and why can the "sheer wisdom" be recognised by asking
and answering questions related to it?
2 What is the relationship between Learning Organisations and
wisdom?
>A learning organization is a state of being, and includes some
>skills that must be developed. You can't snap your fingers and
>suddenly be a learning organization. Instead there's a process,
>and it takes time. For a specific company, this might not be the
>time to start the process.
I am aware of the diffculty to speak of "is a state of being" and then
to qualify it with "there's a process, and it takes time." Most
Westerners think that "being" is primary so that the "process" is
secondary to it, initiated by it and terminated by it when a definite
end is reached. This kind of thinking is called "ontology" in
philosophy.
Its opposite is called "ontogeny".
I was caught up in ontological thinking just as much as as anybody else.
But I try to shift away from it to "becoming-being" thinking for a
definite reason. My greatest barrier today is that of language -- my
mother tongue Afrikaans and English. I am now capable of ontogenical
thinking which I cannot express with these languages, try as I want. (Here
is a question!!! Is the tacit knowledge the result of ontogenical
thinking?) Although I am capable of ontogenical thinking, I rather try to
maintain a harmony between "being" and "becoming" in thinking.
Rick, you and fellow learners know by now that this distinction is vital
to me, although you might not understand it or agree to it. Nevertheless,
here is an experiment which you all can do with respect to learning.
Begin with kids and ask them the questions
(1) What do you want to be
(2) What do you want to become.
Ask (1) and (2) in the same session, ask them in reverse order in
another session to the same kids and ask each seperately in
different sessions to observe how different their answers will be in
each session. (These two questions are fantastic to become aware
how the collective spirit/atmosphere of a situation influences the
answers to questions.) Try to make sense from these different
answers.
Asking these two questions to grown-ups often produces indignation at
first. They think you are dealing with them as kids. But once you have
earned their respect, you will be surprised how differently they will
answer these two questions too. I think that these two questions ought to
be asked often in any LO.
How many times this year and by which other members in your organisation
have you been asked the second question:
What do you want to become?
With care 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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