for those of you, interested mainly in practical questions, please read
the last paragraph and skip the rest!
Dear Jan, John and others
thanks for your insightful message, here are a couple of points in addition:
you write:
"I or you can solve this problem by solving it. Finding a re-solution.
Notice that a resolution, any resolution, is also a practice ("this is
what I'm going to do") out-of-a theory ("this is what i think about the
problem"). The resolution of theorising practising: we must or want or
will or learn to accept the problem. Difficult, yeah, life is difficult.
Takes time, yeah, time is responsible for not having a practice all at
once once we're having the theory."
If I understand you correctly, you are bringing the discussion to a
different level. Are you not saying the theory/practice discussion is not
all that important regarding our work, or actually life in general. More
important is the spirit with which we deal with the phenomena at hand. If
we come out of a victim-attitude, we shy away from looking at how we are
directly responsible for the situation at hand, and how our way of
perceiving the situation freezes it into what we think it to be. Zen would
call this the beginner's mind attitude, or mu-shin. In Shamanism,
shapeshifting would be a possible term for this. There are no longer
problems other than your own perception. Adhering to one particular
theory, according to this view, is actually limiting our horizon. We need
to have many theories available, that can be used and discarded as we go
along.
I for one believe in this theory a good part of the time, till I run into
a problem where taking responsibility would mean that I have to identify
with something that I don't like about myself, like Orestes having killed
his mother in your example, then I notice a tendency to go back to a more
causal worldview.
I used to work in prisons, and once in a while met people who said: "I did
what I did, because I had a choice and wanted to do it, no one else to
blame but me." frequently they exuded an atmossphere of personal freedom,
that went beyond what I seemed to perceive in many of us who lived
"outside".
that brings me further:
PS 1:
Hi John: you asked: "In other words, how can we demonstrate to the
responsible decision makers that the learning organisation and
collaborative leadership can keep KIDS FROM KILLING KIDS."
I appreciate the intent and well-meaning of the writer behind this sentence,
yet feel somewhat uncomfortable about it.
The church says: how we can demonstrate that if we all practice
christianity, we can keep kids from killing kids
the socialists say: how can we demonstrate that if we all bring in more
social justice, we can keep kids from killing kids
the conservative say: how can we demonstrate that if we all adhere more
strictly to laws and punish those that trespass harder, we can keep kids
from killing kids
I would like to see the kids speaking to this, and us sitting and listening
and learning.
PRACTICAL QUESTION:
Now having said all of this, I am still interested in the original
question: I might be naive, but I still don't get it:
Let's say I facilitate in a group of sixty executives, who don't trust
each other, are competitive and are starting to get nasty because the
quarterly report was miserable. Underhanded attacks are coming from all
sides, everybody has the right solution, and nobody wants to listen to
anybody else, the gossip in the break is bloody. Internal politics are
souring the field. How could I use the concept of entropy to help me in my
interventions, given the fact that I don't have a situation where there is
either the time or the inclination of the group to listen to a theory
first, than agreeing with it, than changing their behaviour because they
now agree with the theory.
I guess I would feel we could get a step further, if someone could
describe some possible actions and how using concept of entropy they
arrived to them.
love to all of you
Max
--"Max Schupbach" <max@max-jytte.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>