Jeff -
I'm borrowing a paragraph of yours from this thread to be an example of
something I said on another. I've been thinking about 'stories' and how
they can represent useful knowledge; the following paragraph in which you
describe what you accomplish with an IBIS map, illustrates something about
stories. I've emphasized a word or phrase here and there to make the
point.
On Tue, 31 Oct 1995, Jeff Conklin wrote:
> To be more concrete: one use of these maps is in helping a person or
> group tell a story about the decision they have made. We view a
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> decision (any decision) as simply a choice based on feelings, and
> backed up with a story that, ideally, makes the decision compelling
> for the people impacted by it. The IBIS map depicts the rationale
> behind the decision, so as people learn about the decision they can
> see the process that went into making it, including the options that
^^^^^^^^^^^
> were considered and rejected, and the reasons why. The rationale
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> becomes part of the narrative that goes with the decision, and gives
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> others in the organization a sense of participating (in "fast
> forward") in the process. If there is additional input, or even if
> the decision has to be "unmade" or remade, the map permits anyone to
> jump in fully informed and expand on the exploration, adding new
> information, points of view, whatever. The context is preserved, and
> other knowledge workers who come along later do not have to wonder
> "Why did they do it THAT way?," nor to reinvent the wheel.
I couldn't help noticing here how "understanding" means something like
"understanding the story" and not "understanding a theory", and how
different those two kinds of understanding are.
--
Regards
Jim Michmerhuizen jamzen@world.std.com
web residence at http://world.std.com/~jamzen/
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. . . . There are far *fewer* things in heaven and earth, Horatio, . . . .
. . . . . than are dreamt of in your philosophy... . . | _ .