Ah, an unmistakable opportunity to introduce myself.
I was one of BBN's 7 person ARPANET design and development team in
1969. We knew we were involved in making a major important change
from what went before. I doubt that any of us anticipated in 1969
what the ARPANET would become and the capability it would eventually
provide. However, with the introduction of networked email in
1971 or so, several of us were sure that the ARPANET was going to
change the world along the lines that has happened, and I personally
have been surprised that the Internet has taken so long to become
widely known. I thought it would happen by 1980 and unfortunately
based at least one business on that incorrect premise.
After 26 years with BBN involved in a variety of technical,
technical management, and general management roles, I left
in 1995. I am currently with the Center for Quality of
Management in Cambridge, MA, a non-profit consortium of
about 75 companies and 18 university affiliates with the
purpose of sharing what works and what doesn't work in
management and quality methods. Many of our member companies
started with TQM, as a fairly strong system for organizational
change. As time has gone by the CQM and its member companies
have sought to address some of the weaknesses of TQM by adding
complementary ideas from other sources, e.g., planning from Ackoff,
system dynamics, language and action from Argyris
and Flores, and so forth. This is the area I work in.
I am also interested in the intersection to all this learning
organization stuff and the use of information technology.
I have enjoyed participating in this community for a while, mostly
reading but occasionally writing, and look forward to continuing.
I appreciate Rick's efforts in maintaining the community.
--Dave Walden, 280 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02116 At home: phone and fax=617-437-7139, email=walden@bbn.com At CQM: phone=617-873-8971, fax=617-873-8980, email=dave_walden@cqm.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>