Coincidently, I am reminded of work with clients where the emphasis of
"swift" engendered an atmosphere of stress where even the clearest thinkers
saw only blacks and whites in their rush to judgement. These were not among
my favorite clients -- though it was the stress which indirectly brought them
to me.
Somehow, I'd like to think that for organizations and people there is
recognizable pace at which things can flow in a sound and healthy way. We
know from engineering when we are forcing a design -- things just don't
happen right and our costs soar as we introduce workarounds and force-fit
solutions. And we know from hydraulics the difficulty of managing and
accommodating turbulent flow.
Aren't we using 'learning organizations' as a way to balance the extremes
between fast and slow, light and heavy, now and future, simple and complex,
conscious and subconcious, left-brain and right? And in the process, aren't
we using 'learning organizations' to find what is sustainable for an
organization at a given moment in time?
Help me with this if you can. I can't seem to put this to rest.
Jim Brown
J. L. Brown & Co.
Los Angeles, California