Bernard Girard asked in relation to my general query about holism:
>You have a lot of questions, I have one : what is this "holistic
>management" you're talking about. What do these farmers do that
>makes them in any sense of the word "holistics"?
I am glad Bernard asked this question. My original reference was to an
'holistic management system' for farmers that has been very
enthusiastically (and controversially) adopted by many farmers in
Australia, the USA and in other places (some African countries for
starters).
The holistic management system I referred to is called Holistic Resource
Management which was developed by Allan Savory at the Centre for Holistic
Resource Management in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In my original message, I
floated the idea that Savory's management system may well be an intuitive
application of learning organisation thinking.
To explain what HRM is, let me quote from Savory: 'The HRM model is a
powerful aid for analysing policies to ensure they are ecologically,
economically and socially sound and for redesigning policies that do not
meet these criteria. Yet, because the approach is such a radical
departure from the conventional, it may be many years before it gains
mainstream acceptance. In using the HRM model to analyse or formulate
policies, we depart from the conventional in these significant areas:
1 We look at whole situations rather than fragments of them
2 We look toward a comprehensive goal involving people's values, what
they can produce (with their creativity and resources) to sustain those
values and the land/environment needed to sustain both indefinitely.
3 We ensure that this three part goal drives the policy, rather than
specific problems
4 We address underlying causes of problems rather than repeatedly
tackling symptoms, which most problems are, and which steadily drain both
financial and human resources
5 We address short and long-term needs simultaneously, rather than
short-term needs alone'. (Savory, HRM Quarterly, No. 43, 1994, p. 10) .
The HRM model is promoted as a management package appropriate for farmers
through to government. Operationally, the approach involves subjecting
proposals or policies to a series of 'testing questions'. which test the
consistency of the proposal with the managers' (or organisation's) vision,
an introspection on cause and effect (is the situation a symptom or the
cause of a problem), identification of a 'weak link' that might disrupt
progress following policy implementation, energy source and pattern of
use, wealth source and pattern of use, a question about financial returns
(called 'gross margin analysis'), the nature of 'marginal reaction'
(implication of the proposal per $ or hour of labour), and consistency of
the policy proposal with quality of life goals.
The question relating to cause and effect is very much an application of
holistic thinking. It is here that much of the 'revolution' of HRM for
farm management is to be found. The requirement for any manager is to
really understand (learn about) the nature of the system to be controlled.
An holistic rather than 'atomistic' perspective is recommended. Systems
are dynamic and feedback driven rather than mechanistic. The financial,
ecological and socio-cultural dimensions are all relevant to understanding
the complexity of situations. Savory has much advice about the
interpretation of farming systems in this context (see, for example his
text: Savory, A. 1988, Holistic Resource Management, Island Press). Like
the Learning Organisation conceptualisation, here are elements of
'personal mastery', team learning', 'mental models', 'vision sharing' and
of course, systems thinking as well.
In my own organisation, we are watching the impacts of this HRM movement
in Australia with great interest and curiosity. Of course, there are
other manifestations of this kind of 'systems management', but few have
been so interestingly packaged and so fervently adopted by on the ground
management as this. I am intrigued by the similarities between Learning
Organisation and HRM 'packages' for management. Particularly, I think
managers and their organisations might well end up at similar end points
through either path (ie, a dynamic learning organisation).
-- Dr Roderic A. Gill Deputy Director, Centre for Agricultural and Resource Economics (CARE) Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia telephone: 067 73 2280, fax: 067 733944, mobile: 015 293 288"Wisdom is a happy marriage between respect for tradition on the one hand, and confidence in one's own discernment on the other".