I have heard Peter Senge talk on numerous occasions, but I thought his
presentation at this conference was among his best. His comment on how we
live in an unsustainable economic system yet feel that the system can't
change reminded me of the proverbial question: what happens when an
irresistible force meets an immovable object. I think the only way out is
to reframe the dilemma, but to what?
Deborah Tannen showed videodata clips of children talking to one another
in order to engage the audience about gender differences in communication.
Even now when I talk to men or women the video is rolling 'in my mind's
eye', and I am newly sensitive to posture, body angles, and eye contact.
Sherry Turkle shared an anecdote vis-a-vis real vs. virtual life that
struck me. She described a trip she made this past summer to the
Mediterranean where her 7(?) year old daughter saw a jellyfish and
exclaimed: "look, Ma, how realistic!" (I guess there are no 'real'
jellyfish in the Back Bay of Boston where Sherry lives, but there are
plenty down here in Narragansett Bay.)
As for my own presentations, I conducted a pre-conference workshop on my
approach to building organizational learning capability; participants used
our instrument the "Organizational Learning Inventory" to profile the
learning capability of their own teams or organizations. Then at author's
nite, I made a brief presentation, responded to questions, and signed
copies of my book ("How Organizations Learn").
I regret missing Jerry Porras's talk (I had to be in Boston for the
Linkage CLO conference) as his book "Built to Last" is a major
contribution to understanding 'successful' organizations and dwarfs in
substance that previous bible "In Search of Excellence".
All in all, Pegasus '98 (and the stay in San Francisco with an excursion
to Sausalito) was another memorable event.
regards,
Tony DiBella
www.orgtransitions.com
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