Organizations really don't learn. They must be undone and built anew from the ground up. Has something to do with the organizational culture. Witness the FBI. "If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you always got." They seem to have no way to break out of the culture.
There are examples everywhere. All organizations say "we are learning organizations." Yeah. Just try it from within and watch as the subtle freeze begins. That is why whistle blowers emerged, and they are often fired rather than listened too. The shutting down of learning feedback loops, learning, makes organizations vulnerable. arthur -----Original Message----- From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003 8:34 PM To: Ray Evans Harrell Cc: Harry Pollard; Keith Hudson; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Futurework] There is no such thing as "social intelligence" I stand emended. Ray Evans Harrell wrote: > So if there are no social intelligences then there are no "organizations > that learn?" [snip] I wrote (and you quote): >>I will never use that phrase "social intelligence" again. >>I don't why I didn't see for myself how antithetical >>it is to my beliefs. Engineering and designing systems >>which are easy and pleasant to use for social welfare and >>creative cultural endeavor, and difficult >>to hijack for private greed is a little closer >>to what I think -- I think. [snip] No, I do not think organizations can learn, except in the metaphorical sense I stated above -- which may for all practical purposes accomplish the desirable part of the myth of organizations learning. I'll stick with the Hegelian notion of objectivation of spirit in the products of human labor. The way in which organizations learn is the same as the way stones learn: An electric dental drill has more intelligence in it than a twig or pebble we pick off the ground and try to use to poke at a pain in our tooth. But, like the light of the moon, [obviously] the intelligence in the drill is *reflected* intelligence: the incorporation of the knowledge of medical instrument makers in the instruments thay make. What makes persons want to attribute human attributes to non-human entities? My guess is that it is some kind of correlate to them not attributing human attributes to themselves. \brad mccormick -- Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
