On Sunday, November 14, Carol Sager wrote,
>Systems thinking is a skill/focus that can and should be learned. One
>needs the willingness to understand the concepts and apply them.... Many
>things such as short-term thinking, organizational barriers to effective
>communication across traditional boundaries, lack of information about
>basic business drivers, etc. hold back systems thinking. It is not so
>much the *inclination* that inhibits systems thinking but knowing where
>and how to begin.
Carol, thanks very much for your words. I take from them the notion that
most anyone with the willingness to learn can be "inclined" toward the
discipline of systems thinking. You bring to the surface for me an idea
that seemed implicit in Robert's original message and some of the
responses, namely, that if we could just find folks with an inherent
preference toward systems thinking through the use of a clever instrument,
we could concentrate on them to the (apparent) exclusion of others. I
don't think Robert intended this, but it raises for me the continuing
problem of using MBTI and other instruments to "choose" people for whom we
believe a particular subject of learning will be better than for others.
On the other hand, as we work in organizations, we're always looking for
leverage points! Anyone want to help me out of this dilemma?
Regards,
Malcolm Burson
Professional and Organizational Development Specialist
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
mburson@mint.net
--"Malcolm Burson" <mburson@mint.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>