Thanks for the beginnings of your article, Joe. It's obvious to me that
you've hit the nail on the head when you speak about
>I believe the reason for this pattern of elevate, invest, and discard is
>the same in both cases: it is the unwillingness of American managers to
>make fundamental changes in the way they think. That is what both Total
>Quality and the Learning Organization have in common. Both are stepping
>stones in the radical transformation occurring in business and society at
>large.
Not being attached to how business has been run, I see clearly the need
for businesses to totally transform. Looking at the world systemically, it
is obvious to me that the consciousness of the planet (call it Gaia for
the sake of a name) is letting mankind know that it is not happy about the
way mankind has been messing around with Gaia. That is being translated,
via feedback, into "shape up or ship out". If it's happening on the human
"ecological" level, why shouldn't it also occur on the human-made
structures called organizations, too?
As Daniel Quinn said, as long as organizations continue to take things out
of the ground, do something to them, and sell them at a profit, it is
still inherently unsustainable. I think this is the eventual end result of
following a path of becoming a learning organization...through
self-reflection and deep inquiry, organizations will come to the
conclusion that they are inherently sustainable, or they're not. If
they're not, then they have the option of becoming sustainable, or going
out of business.
This is a rather B&W version of my current thinking, but in the long-term,
I think I'm right.
Comments?
Robert
Robert Levi | 4801 N. 107th St. | voice: 303/665-6679,x361
Director of Computing | Lafayette, CO 80026 | fax: 303/665-0757
Alexander Dawson School | email: dawson@usa.net | Systems Thinking Junkie