Change from the Bottom Up LO5095

John Zavacki (jzavacki@epix.net)
Wed, 24 Jan 1996 05:01:00 -0500

Replying to LO5071 --

Myrna Casebolt wrote:
> snip....
> Great question and zeros in on one of my great concerns. Learning takes
> place all over the place. I think it was Hoffer who once said that
> learners inherit the future...the learned find themselves in a world that
> no longer exists. For a long time now, I have thought that we are
> evolving towards more acknowledgment of holism.....the idea of
> "management" simply has a decreasing role .... the evolutionary rattle is
> sounding..... I can see where you would get the idea that the theory of
> LO just addresses management issues. Do you think that might be because
> we have no subscribers who are lavatory attendants????? (I almost blocked
> and deleted that...but stopped myself because I think that we might be
> dealing with an elitist issue here....so I'm raising it....what do you
> think?)

I sometimes feel that this may be true. It may well be that there are no
small business managers or factory line managers in the small to medium
busines range as well. The notion of a listserv is not a universal. Most
of my computer literate friends on the factory floor use AOL or CServe to
surf through commercial sites and to download games and shareware. When I
can get them interested in taking a look at listservs or newsgroups, it's
hard for them to understand the discipline of reading thirty messages
about learning every morning, just to learn about learning.

When the principles are applied within the factory, however, it's a
different story. The learner wears no uniform and carries no title. The
depth of that knowledge, however, is derived from deep cultural issues.
We operate here on theoretical, metatheoretical, and occasionally,
mystical notions. These menatal models are not readily available to the
potential learner. Of the millions of new internet users in the past few
years, how many of them do you think share our passion for thinking about
learning and organizational behaviour?

It may look elitist, but the reality is not that the janitor is not
allowed in. The janitor doesn't have a modem.

-- 
jzavacki@epix.net 
	John Zavacki
	The Wolff Group
	900 James Avenue
	Scranton, PA 18510
Phone: 717-346-1218	Fax: 717-346-1388