Replying to LO26148 --
Thanks, Doug, this is a good description.
You write:
> Hopefully, learning organizations will learn to do something. The results
> of the learning are codified in the symbols, rules, stories, processes etc
> that guide the organization's behavior. With continued success, the
> organization's learning becomes more focused, the symbols more
> differentiated, the rules more specific, stories crisper, processes more
> finely honed, M&P's more detailed, wasted motion banished. The external
> focus is on those facets of enviroment that past learning indicates are
> critical, distractions are ignored.
But all this whilst still remaining firmly on the dynamic end of this.
Values, of which the signs and symbols are a reflection, have to change
over time as well.
Learning organisations are those that also learn the dynamics of the
environment and change the linguistic representations accordingly. That is
what co-evolution means. Stories are the perfect mechanism -and proven
over many, many millenia as opposed to many of the new 'Knowledge
Management' fads- to capture the dynamics (complexity).
> In a stable enviroment, to do otherwise invites loss to the more
> efficient. The dilemma is this quest for efficiency makes it difficult to
> sustain effectiveness. The same success that provides the feedback that
> enables the increased efficiency, can also impede the organization's
> ability to recognize when the environment has changed.
I would argue that there are no environments (anymore?) that are stable
enough to allow this level of efficiency. The most effective system of
learning I know (evolution) uses genes (and memes if you want) to evolve.
It is hardly very efficient (although it appeared that our genome was more
efficient that we thought :-) ).
Frank
Regards,
Frank Smits
Home Page: http://website.lineone.net/~frank.smits
--"Frank Smits" <frank.smits@lineone.net>
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