John H. Dicus wrote:
> How long will it be until the LO becomes
> a bad word? Has it already? Listen to some of the threads.
>
> I really fear that day. I have such a strong dream of how things could
> be. I don't care what we call it - I have the dream - nothing will change
> that.
---snip----snip---snap----snop----
> Rainer Maria Rilke wrote this poem in 1914. "Left out to die on
> the mountains of the heart. Look, how tiny it is, do you see: the final
> barn of language, and, above it, still tiny, one final granary of feeling.
> You've seen it before? Left out to die on the mountains of the
> heart......." What will it take for us to learn to live above the final
> barn of language -- beyond the last granary of feeling?
>
> I would like to suggest something I have been thinking about for a long
> time. A few years ago a book was written by a pair of authors in the UK
> called "The Learning Company." It was a collection of 101 glimpses into
> the future -- vignettes that stood alone.
>
> How about our beginning a thread wherein each person adding on simply
> paints a word picture of some facet of the organization of their dreams.
> State it in the future perfect tense -- as though we are already there
> with you. As the thread builds there should be a very rich, textured, and
> compelling picture about what this new organization looks, feels, sounds
> like -- even though we might not have a good name for it. Make it vivid.
> Let's get out of our heads for a little while. The neat thing is that the
> multifaceted picture would be generated by having the "whole system in the
> room" -- all of you. Its our future.
John,
thanks for your posting--I really enjoyed it. Your "thread" idea is
similar to a poetic device, whereby everyone adds a phrase or metaphor to
create an extemporaneous poem. The outcome is a collage of brilliant
images and colors, intermixed with drab and trite ideas. It sometimes
takes the depths to experience the heights. With a group of masters,
perhaps the outcome would be more similar to an impromptu jazz session,
variations on a theme.
The issues of language are very important. Philosophers have always been
very deliberate in defining their terms, especially when they are
expressing new ideas. Our culture is very engrained in superficial
thinking, though, and pulp ideas abound in the HR, OD, LO, et al., fields.
Each of these ideas is restated in new terms, copyrighted and, hopefully,
income earned. It's sometimes difficult to hold another's attention long
enough to define terms, nowadays.
"According to Maturana, we can understand human consciousness only through
language and the whole social context in which it is embedded. As its
Latin root-- con-scire ('knowing together')--might indicate, consciousness
is essentially a social phenomenon." (from Capra's "Web of Life") I
introduced this quote, because we are all engaged in bringing forth a new
world view with the evolution of thought concerning organizations,
societies, principles, ethics and learning. Your use of Rilke's poem is
very illustrative of this idea. Poesia, the act of creating, is at the
heart of what many of us do as learners, actors and consultants.
My visualization of the living organization is one of people who want to
"know together" to create their organizational consciousness.
--Richard C. "Doc" Holloway, Limen Development Network - olypolys@nwrain.com
"I have come to understand organizational vision as a field-a force of unseen connections that influences employees' behavior-rather than as an evocative message about some desired future state."
-Margaret Wheatley
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>