Dear Morty
You replied
>I would contend that all beliefs ultimately are interpretations of
>experience. We live as if we see meaning in the world, but in fact all
>meaning is an interpretation of what we really do see, and it's only in
>our minds.
I largely agree with this statement but not completely. Two concerns I
have. What we see is based on our image of the world. We filter inputs
before they ever reach awareness. Our interpretation to be functional
must be connected with our experience. While I create meaning out of my
experience, I do not creating meaning out of nothing. I create it out of
past experience, rather my image, my interpretation of past experiences,
and out of what is happening at the moment.
>In oither words, you can observe your parents ignoring you and conclude:
>I'm not important. It seems to you as if you areobserving I'm not
>important, as if you could point to it and I would see the same thing. But
>in fact all you see if your parents behavior, which could mean that you're
>not important, that your parents think you're not important but they are
>wrong, that you weren't important in that household but you might be in
>another household, etc. There are a lot of possible interpretations or
>meanings in your parents' behavior, but there is no one meaning that is
>INHERENT in their behavior.
Again, I largely agree but again I have doubts. We share meanings, as we
are attempting to do now. If my parents think I am not important, say we
have talked it over and they have confirmed that they think I am
unimportant. Say I had the same discussion with my wife and she agrees, I
am not important. Say the process is repeated. At some point I will
conclude that the whole world agrees that I am not important. This is of
course my image but it is a shared image. I can continue with the belief
that I am really important and all others beliefs are wrong.
>When you realize that a belief you hold is merely one interpetation of
>earlier experiences, that you never saw it in the world, that the belief
>(i.e., the meaning of the experience) has existed only in your mind -- the
>belief will disappear permanently. This is obviously only an assertion,
>but I've seen this happen thousands of times.
I suspect you have "seen" is not a change in belief but a change in
behaviour from which you conclude there has been a change in belief.
> Now, in an organziation, beliefs are eliminated in much the same way. But
>if you keep getting into trouble for making a mistake, you will realize
>that your old belief might not be applicable to all comapnies, and might
>not be applicable to this company under different management, etc., but it
>is applicable here at the moment. Thus, in order to change employees'
>behavior and get them to take chances,you not only have to change their
>beliefs about getting into trouble, you have to create a culture that
>rewards them rather than punishes them for such behavior. Hope this
>clarifies what I said earlier and answers your question. > > Best
So in fact it is not only the belief that has to change but the
environment in which that belief is consistant with experience has to
change also.
Name: Jon C. Jenkins
E-mail: imaginal@pop.pi.net (Jon C. Jenkins)
Date: 08/03/95
Time: 17:42:04
--jon <jon_jenkins_imaginal_training@pi.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>