Replying to LO27983 --
Dear Organlearners,
Greetings to all of you. In the
Subject: Learning Organisations Impact LO27983
I wrote to:
Lynette Nyembezi <LynetteN@serviceseta.org.za>
>Use Google's search engine at
< http://www.google.com/advanced_search >
>Type in the second window
>learning organisation
>Type in the bottom right window (domain)
>.za
>(Remember the dot before the "za").
>
>You will get some 458 hits. Happy hunting.
I said happy hunting because it is good to study all the reasons which
organisations give for being a Learning Organisation (LO). Some just call
themselves a LO because they have heard it being used elsewhere or think
it is nice to call them a LO. Some try to articulate that they are
enriching their learning without knowing anything about Peter Senge's
work. Some may indeed be functioning like a LO.
To study 458 cases for the domain .za does not take that much
time. But should we use the domain .uk (United Kingdom) the
number of hits will be 9 810, a mammoth task to work through.
A valuable list of the country codes can be found at
< http://www.uchicago.edu/docs/country-codes.html >
By using the domain .au (Australia) or .ca (Canada) the hits will
be 3 280 and 172 respectively. Now is that not interesting -- I
expected that Australia and Canada would give similar results!
What will be the reason for this vast difference?
Let us compare .za (South Africa) with .bw (Botswana). The
.za gives 458 hits while the .bw gives 4 hits. The simple reason
is that Internet has limited use in Botswana. It is a vast country
with few telephone links because of the Kalahri desert. The
domain .zw (Zinbabwe) gives 3 hits while .mz (Mozambique)
gives also 3 hits, even though the language there is Portugese.
Should some rich countries team together and give Southern
Africa a communications satelite dedicated to Internet with
FREE ACCESS to it, I think that conditions in countries like
Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and even the
rural regions of South Africa can be vastly improved. To help
people learn is vastly more effective than sanctions.
How can we categorise the various cases for the hits on a
topic like Learning Organisation. I will use Google's advance
search engine once again. I will then restrict the number of
hits by searching in a partiuclar domain. For example, type in
the bottom right window (domain):-
.za
to reduce limit the search to South Africa.
Now type in the first window:-
learning organisation
You will get about 12 600 hits.
Clear the first window and then type in the second window:-
learning organisation
You will the get about 459 hits.
Why the difference? Using "learning organisation" in the first
window commands Google to search for the two separate
concepts "learning" and "organisation". It will even include the
cases where "learning" and "organisation" stand next to each
other. Using "learning organisation" in the second window
commands Google to search for the single concept
"learning organisation", avoiding the cases where "learning"
and "organisation" are used separately.
Anything more than some 100 hits are too much for any
authentic learner to work through, unless the goal is to explore
all which has been written on the "learning organisation"
Hence you will have to begin pruning these hits. It may be done
as follows.
Use again in the second window
learning organisation
but now add in the first window something closely associated
with the LO like:-
Senge
The number of hits will decrease from 458 to 57. I personally
would avoid Senge's name because it is often used as a selling
feature.
I would rather add in the first window a distinctive feature of
the LO like:-
connectivity
It is one of the 11 essences of a LO. It gives 23 hits. Or I would
add one of the five disciplines like:-
personal mastery.
It gives 22 hits. But to find those organisations which really have
been transformed into a LO, knowing through experiences what
a LO is about, I would rather use:-
metanoia
It gives only 1 hit. Uh-huh?
Now see what happens to .au (Australia) as domain. With in
the first window:-
metanoia
and in the second window:-
learning organisation,
the number of hits decreases from 3 280 to 3. For .ca (Canada)
it decreases from 172 to 1. Uh-huh? What has become of that
fundamental shift of mind from orthonia and paranoia into
metanoia?
But let us get back to the domain .za. Put in the first window any
one or more key words which have to do with constructive
creativity and authentic learning as one of its outcome. For
example, if you put in the first window
openness
the number of hits will decrease from 458 to 36. If it is still too
much, add another keyword to the first window. Take care not
to go berserk on the 7Es, but also take into account the outcome
of focussing on one or more of the 7Es. For example, rather than
using
openness wholeness
in the first window which gives only 1 hit, use
openness living
which gives 17 hits.
Work through each of these 17 hits to see what jewels there are.
With care and best wishes
[Host's Note: At, I had one concern about analyses like this... I believe
that many organizations outside the US are using .com for their internet
domain and not the .co.uk or .co.za alternate form; your relative numbers
should be OK, but I suspect you are missing some entries from each
company. I have pretty much given up analyzing addresses on the LO list
for this reason. ..Rick]
--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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