>A group of people waiting for a bus can each succeed with out cooperation.
>For a group to be a team it must have a one win all win and one lose all
>lose mentality. That only exists when the people are interconnected and
>must depend on each other.
Ackoff describes four types of systems in terms of the state of
"purposefulness" of the parts and of the whole. He uses purposeful to mean
that the part or the whole can make choices.
Deterministic: Parts, Not Purposeful; Whole, Not Purposeful
Example - a clock
Animated: Parts, Not Purposeful; Whole, Purposeful
Example - human being
Social: Parts, Purposeful; Whole, Purposeful
Example - a business organization
Ecological: Parts, Purposeful; Whole, Not Purposeful
Example - the purposeful use of fluorocarbons affect the ozone layer in a
manner that is determined, not as a matter of choice
I'm not sure the relevancy to Eugene's response but it triggered this
recollection.
Bill Braun
--Bill Braun <medprac@hlthsys.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>