First, let me say that I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy this list and
the moderator.
Second let me say that I have experienced learning organizations in the
very same places that Senge and Schon and others have resourced. LOs as
real entities and not as metaphors or analogies.
Third, it is very difficult to define the world through a discipline that
reduces everything to it's simplest projection rather than working through
a medium of performance (another thread, I apologize for that) that
strives to define complexity in terms of mastery. Only mastery can truly
be simple because only mastery reduces complexity.
As for the groups where I have experienced entities that learn, I would
say that all chamber music ensembles, whether instrumental, vocal or dance
are in that category as are most Native American Council processes, and I
don't mean the plastic shamans. Senge notes it in his graphic for the
opening of the Fifth Discipline as well as in his observations of
performance ensembles. Schon or Schoen, to be more accurate without
umlauts, references it through the act of reflection in Bernie
Greenhouse's coaching with Pablo Casals. Mastery on this level is almost
incoherent to the non tutored, and there is a lot of that these days, but
Schoen made a good effort and I admire his Reflective Practitioner books
and have taught them to grad students at Columbia in medicine for patient
relations.
So, yes folks, there are real learning organizations and they have been
monitored in primitive ways in the Brain lab at NYU by very studious
souls. Brains that learn together as an entity have the same brain
patterns it seems. The same is true for traditional Shamans meditating
together over distances but that is another story.
Sorry about just dropping in but lurking is all I have time for these
days. Thanks for the pleasure of your discussion and I hope this is not
too disruptive.
Regards,
Ray Evans Harrell, artistic director
The Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble, Inc.
200 West 70th Street, Suite 6-C
NYCity, 10023
212 724 2398, fax. 212 724 2952
mcore@idt.net
[Host's Note: Ray, very nice to hear from you again! ...Rick]
--"Ray E. Harrell" <mcore@idt.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>