"How do you enlist folks who are not already applying [the five dispclines]
[Deming's philosophy] [a new philosophy]?"
Russell Ackoff spoke to this issue. He first works with organizations to
reveal that their current system is unsustainable. In one of his books, for
instance, he was working with an automobile company that was forecasting a
stable environment. The problem was, a key element to the environment was
(3%? 7%, 10%) annual growth in the number of roads and highways. A simple,
linear forecast revealed that such a growth was unsustainable. Within 20 or
30 years (sorry to be so rusty on the actual numbers), such a growth would
translate into about 110% of the North America covered in pavement. Once
people realize that their current system is unsustainable, they are more
receptive to experimenting with changes to systems.
Mark Shal, a consultant here in southern California, said that if you observe
a train traveling at 50 miles per hour, you are observing a stable system.
If you see that it is heading towards a brick wall, you realize it is an
unstable system.
The sooner people realize that change OF systems will eventually be required,
the sooner they will be willing to experiement with such changes. As a
change agent, you first want to raise awareness of the need/opportunity for
change. Then, you want to offer principles that can form the foundation for
a learning organization -- a system that continually adapts and changes
without the crisis stimulus.
-- Ron Davison, San Diego RonDavison@aol.comIf you stay in this world, you will never learn another one. -- W. Edwards Deming
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>