Replying to LO26079 --
Dear AM
I feel when I working with Learning Organization concepts that we do not
have language to describe what we are trying to describe. When I was
writing that note I was hard pressed to articulate receiving data and
determining that where I am is fine (fine being defined as a conscious and
informed presence willing to respond to and affect multiple levels of
reality as they occur).
I will have to think about the LEP and LEC differential. I do not think
of Learning Organizations in mathematics as much as human terms. I was
doing a strategic planning workshop with a company and the president
stomped up during a workshop and ripped the data off the wall that the
group had just placed there. He said this is wrong this is not our
problem. Silence was so thick I felt like my heart stopped. From a
facilitation perspective, it was the exact wrong thing to do if you are
trying to build levels of trust and consensus. In this situation, it was
a truly authentic response from an individual struggling deeply with the
needs of this organization. From that moment on the president had a
different relationship to the group and the group to him, and the group to
itself. By consciously processing this and by deciding as a group to move
through it while giving him the respect due his insight yet honoring the
groups work transformed the learning process of the organization and of
that manager. Individually people chose diverse response as a group they
chose to be different.
For me the simplicity of 4 options is intended to relate that we are not
making these 4 choices at the macro level most of the time but at multiple
levels simultaneously. I was also relating them to Harriet's image that
IRA and the Auto license bureau are not learning. I believe they are
learning just fine thank you but the areas they are changing in are not
the ones that Harriet is looking for. She is looking for a change in
service they are changing in effectively obeying the rules. I was meeting
with a government client this week to sign the contract for a Management
Retreat there were 5 people there 2 from their planning department, one
from finance, one from anti-corruption and a consultant to help them fill
out the paper work correctly because the laws have just changed. What is
the government employee learning? Understanding the rules is their most
important point of learning. They can get in more trouble for doing it
wrong than not doing anything.
As you can see, I have trouble staying detached from my own mental models
but I try. We can only learn from the point where we are standing.
My task is to try to see the Mental Models that are operating and to
initially say they exist rather than judge them. All mental models made
sense at some point or they would not exist.
What has changed that makes the mental model invalid? What must change to
make it invalid?
What is the new mental model beckoning?
Knowing that they exist at all helps a group perceive that mental models
are not abstract things but real, alive, and painful to let go of most of
the time.
Anyway, keep thinking I appreciate your emails on the list.
With respect, Larry
--"Lawrence Philbrook" <icalarry@ficnet.net>
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