Greg Haworth and I have been having an offline discussion about the
dangers of organizations being primarily motivated by profit. Greg has
made the point that LOs will simply make such organizations more efficient
at destroying the planet (Greg, please correct me if this is not what you
meant!). We agreed to send one of our messages the list in the hope of
sparking a dialogue on ways that organizations can learn to focus on the
common good, not just the bottom line.
I meant to say that, unless organizations become driven by a higher goal
than maximizing profit, they are soulless and not to be trusted. I agree
with you that most organizations today are almost entirely profit-driven.
It has occurred to me that executives will want to create learning
organizations if that means increased profit, market share, etc. However,
if becoming an LO means that a higher vision is required, perhaps one that
comes from the majority of the people working there, and that vision is
more like "conquer world hunger" (even if that means lower profits because
we give food to developing nations, or whatever), then those same
executives will resist a change from the current profit-driven structure.
Especially as the execs are rewarded in proportion to the company's
profits, not its contributions to humanity.
Brian
briangordon@livetolearn.com
Live to Learn
www.livetolearn.com
--"Brian Gordon" <briangordon@livetolearn.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>