Hello all -
I've been lurking the recesses of the listserve for a while, and in the
last batch of postings noticed a pattern.
Much of the ongoing discussion about OL, and about KM, and even about
profit motive, seems to ignore the human-ness - if not the humanity - of
the organizations involved. I do not believe that an organization has a
life of its own. It is only as short-sighted, avaricious, sensitive,
environmental, caring or generous as the people who run it. In large part
this means the upper echelons of management, but I believe also has
ramifications for all levels of any organization.
Bruno Martins Soares pokes at this issue in his response to a profit
motive posting:
"We must always understand that people are in charge of the organizations."
And "we must understand that getting ourselves into a non-power frame of
mind is the first, and usually the most difficult step we must take. And
only if each of us can get into this new difficult frame, can things, in the
end change.
Profit motive, in my view, is a false question."
It is in the realm of the non-power frame of mind that I believe
organizational learning has the most to offer: how can an organization
learn - grow - away from antiquated (in my view) yardsticks that are
fundamentally based on power? Is Southwest airlines there? Perhaps, as
several people have aptly pointed out, although others have just as aptly
acknowledged their simultaneous interest in profits. In any event they
seem to have a more systemic manner of thinking about the costs and
opportunities of doing business. I would posit that the broader focus
comes from the leaders there, and the best way to learn about them is to
speak with those leaders, not about the organization itself.
Eugene Taurman offers a suggestion:
"Learning organization is about an organization learning from its
activities, from it's mistakes and form it's successes. To accomplish this
management must create an environment where there is unfettered exchange
of ideas, of experience, of mistakes and the results. There must be good
measure so the participants can see the impact of experimentation. In
short there must be trust a willingness to share success and failure
without fear or promotion for looking good instead of being good."
My only exception to this analysis is that "organizations" do not learn,
PEOPLE learn. Now I realize this may stand a good deal of the discussion
of OL on its head, so I'm more than willing to accept debate on this.
However, as Eugene acknowledges, "this management" must allow idea
exchange, good measure for seeing the impact of experimentation,
willingness to trust and share, etc. I beleive this is where the
discussion can and should most effectively be centered: on the people who
do the work. Certainly the appeal of Senge's work, for me, is that the
five disciplines - and the footnotes of aspiration, reflective
conversation, and understanding complexity that he adds in Dance of Change
- are focused on what individuals can do in the context of their
organizations to bring about and sustain change toward their own more
desired future. (And I note that it is about the desired state of the
people involved, not the organization's desired state.)
rbacal shared his opinion that:
"I think you will find that only a very small percentage of posts have
anything to do with getting things done in a real work environment. Most
are philosophical, metaphoric and often do not map easily onto the world
of the practitioner."
I tend to agree that the recent discussions miss some glorious
opportunities to explore how PEOPLE are at the root of profit motives, of
KM or OL, fundamentally, and the work therefore is not in convincing
organizations to change their ways, but in finding gentle convincing ways
to allow - even to facilitate - individuals to learn in their
organizatons, and steer those organizatons through their change.
Thank you for the forum to express myself. I'm looking forward to
reflections on these ideas.
Richard Morse
[Host's Note: Welcome, Richard! ..Rick]
--"Richard Morse" <rsmorse@hotmail.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>