Since there are so many people here familiar with Bateson's work, I'd
like to bounce this off of you.
Does anyone know if Bateson wrote on the logical levels of an
organization and the statements at those levels?
I think these are the logical levels of an individual who is healthy.
Identity
I am a healthy person.
Belief
If I am a healthy person, I can influence other people's health in a
positive direction.
Capability
I know how to act healthy.
Behaviour
I run and jog every morning and eat low-fat foods to continue to stay
healthy.
Environment
The medicine healed me.
Would these be the logical level statements of a learning organization?
Identity
We are a learning organization.
Belief
If we are a learning organization, we can adapt to future exogenous
shocks well.
Capability
Our learning organization knows how to learn.
Behaviour
We have periodic dialogue, microworlds for inquiry and left hand
column sessions for our learning organization to learn easily and
effectively.
Environment
External consultants implemented microworlds for inquiry software
that enabled our learning organization to scenario plan, test new
useful and appropriate assumptions and compile our learnings in a
systems archetypes library.
Do you have to stay on the Behaviour and Environment logical levels
when modelling the systems dynamics of an organization?
Has anyone found a good way to model at the belief and capability
levels? Do you need to model at those logical levels or is just
eliciting the assumptions at those levels and testing new assumptions
enough to create a useful and appropriate SD model?
--Andrew
amoreno@cyberspace.org