Ben Compton's and Robert Bacal's posts about the religious view of
"learning org work" reminded me of a story....
When I was writing The Age of Heretics, I was fortunate to have a good
friend who was a scholar of medieval mysticism, and who was converting to
Catholicism.
I spent some time talking with him about Medieval heresy and its impact on
the Church. It's pretty clear that the Church would not have survived
without heresy. There was too much ossification, too much corruption, too
much self-indulgence. Heretics made it possible for the institution to
adapt -- often at great cost to themselves.
"So," I said to my friend, "if heretics were necessary for the church's
survival, then you think that internal dissent and heresy is basically a
good thing."
"Well, no," he said. "Because it contradicts the word of God."
Somehow he had to reconcile both of those points of view.
I sometimes see echoes of this tension among people doing
learning-organization work. The work requires them to question the deepest
assumptions they hold, including their assumptions about human value and
purpose.
Meanwhile, they will not let themselves contradict the word of God -- or,
in some cases, the word of human authority.
Somehow, they hold both these attitudes together. I marvel that they do
it, sometimes for years at a time. I think they do it by keeping a more
fundamental view of "authority" and "devotion" in their hearts, a view
that allows them to recognize that they don't have to have all the
answers.
--Art Kleiner, <art@well.com>
Age of Heretics home page: <http://www.well.com/user/art>
Fifth Discipline Fieldbook home page: <http://www.fieldbook.com>
c/o NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program, 725 Broadway,
NY NY 10003
c/o Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, PO Box 943, Oxford OH 45056
--art@well.com (Art Kleiner)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>