Communities of Practice LO9134

Michael McMaster (Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 14 Aug 1996 14:38:49 +0000

Replying to LO9052 --

Dave Pollard formulates some very interesting questions. I want to focus
on the one that asks,"

> (1) How can management encourage this self-organization and maximize its
> fruitfulness and efficiency, without inadvertantly interfering with it and
> destroying the communities of practice?

The formulation of the question, I think, obscures a standard approach to
management and organisational thinking that defeats itself. It also
highlights an important dilemma. The dilemma is that the executive power
and control must be given up IN ITS CURRENT FORMS - and those who are to
give it up are its "beneficiaries".

The question, however, is framed with implications that the whole is not
self-organising and that individuals are not self-organising except in
certain circumstances. Otherwise, why would we think of "enouraging" self
organisation.

It may be that we can inhibit self-organisation and hence should remove
barriers. It must be that we can become dysfunctional in our
self-organisation and hence look for the sources - in the system or
environment - of that.

I suggest that not until we accept that self-organisation (I prefer terms
such as natural organisation and intelligence) is the existing condition
will we become effective in the area of management and organisation in the
information/knowledge age.

The question of greater interest, and I think power, is, "How can we
influence self-organisation so it is congruent, and how can we become more
powerful in our excercise of this capacity?" Or maybe, "How can we
organise so that the self-organisation is constantly developing its
intelligence?"

Michael McMaster : Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk
book cafe site : http://www.vision-nest.com/BTBookCafe
Intelligence is the underlying organisational principle
of the universe. Heraclitus

-- 

Michael McMaster <Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>