Intro: Joachim H. Steingrubner & Quest LO117

Joachim H. Steingrubner, PhD (jhs@PrimeNet.Com)
Wed, 15 Feb 1995 08:53:42 -0800

As an independent consultant for companies and universities in many quite
different arenas such as aerospace, cancer research, movie industry, and
quality control in manufacturing, I came into contact with many different
organizational structures in many different countries. That does not mean
at all that I would understand or be able to visualize a 'perfect' company
(if there is such a thing) which is why I'm looking forward to discussions
on this list.

The study of organizational structures of companies was never the main focus
of my interests, however. Besides holding an Engineers Diploma and a PhD in
Computer Science, I was studying Indo-European Languages, Philosophy and
Comparative Religion. Therefore, I was happy to see Ken Palmer mentioning
the organizational structure of the human being itself as a topic of
research, i.e. the problem of 'defragmentation'. For me, spiritual progress
is paramount to economic values.

Another area that I would like to see addressed beyond Senge's brilliant
'5th' is the formal interaction between organizations based on fundamentally
different 'mental models'. As a 'real-life' example that I'm currently
confronted with: how does a japanese company interact with its (research)
branches in Germany, California, and Chicago, and how do the branches
interact mutually to the benefit of themselves and the main company ? All
those branches have their 'own style' in making things work, and the styles
are all _very_ different.

My own 'contribution' to systems thinking consists of the creation of a
computer programming paradigm, called 'ConCur'. The basic premise of this
approach is the representation of the 'real world' by means of 'strategies'
and 'models'.
Since the 'real world' seems to be dualistic, dynamic and (ultimately)
balanced, both 'strategies' and 'models' are binary ("yin/yang") graphs
which can change (mutate) in the process, provided the 'balance' of the
system is maintained by insuring that no 'open leaves' exist in the whole
tree (system).
More on this on: http://WWW.primenet.com/~jhs/td/concur.html.

On the personal side, I live in the Hollywood Hills in California with my
wife Wendy, a collie, and a dachshund. The dachsie has her own WWW home
page, btw, on http://WWW.primenet.com/~jhs/wg/home.html - check it out :) -
and, yes, I have
ferns in my garden !

Joachim
From: jhs@PrimeNet.Com (Joachim H. Steingrubner, PhD)