Alonzo warns:
>But, when we start telling one organization how to best drive their process
>by setting up >structural support, then the process becomes stagnant and
>relies on the structure
>rather than the relations between the individuals involved in the
>organization.
Alonzo, I don't know if this helps you work through your "vagaries" but,
perhaps, what is happening here is that you have run into the limitations
of the example I used (a cake recipe) and need to think more broadly about
what a "process description" really is. I knew when I wrote it that a
cake recipe would only go so far in explaining the difference between
process description and state description.
Another example of a process description, of course, is a computer
program. When you understand that some computer programs can actually
create learning (like in neural network programs) you begin to see more of
the power of process description.
I agree with Alonzo that some process descriptions/prescriptions turn out to
be of very limited value. I don't hear him suggesting, nor do I want to,
that changing to static ways of describing organizations would be better.
We must simply improve how well we use process/dynamic methods.
--"John Gunkler" <jgunkler@sprintmail.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>