>I'd say every religion, in its spiritual roots, including Christianity,
>comes from asking the question "What's really going on here?" We look
>around and see that everything is interconnected, that our personal
>welfare is tied to the welfare of others and that the idea of others is
>really misnomer--there is only us. The teachings of Christianity (as an
>expression of spiritual understanding--not political ideology) emerge from
>this idea; so do all other religions--each with own nuance depending on
>cultural milieu. In other words, spirituality and religion explore the
>idea of oneness (and seek to come up with a rational answer to how it all
>could have come about) and what that means. I have long felt the entire
>Bible is about two things: (1) We are one, and (2) what happens when
>people don't understand that.
>
>The systems view of organizations and life is, for me, one more metaphor
>of this idea of oneness. The archetypes describe, in a manner of
>speaking, what happens when people don't understand this. I am sure we
>could apply the archetypes to various Bible stories. Can we escape the
>archetypes? Not exactly, but we can be aware of them and not be
>overwhelmed by them. We can also learn from our experience, be humble,
>and be very moved by the gift of self-awareness that allows us to ponder
>such ideas in the first place. As well, we can use them to guide our
>behavior to benefit of all that we are part of--which is just exactly what
>the 5th Discipline is about.
>
>John Woods
>jwoods@execpc.com
I'd like to respond to the first comment and discuss its implications on
LOs in general.
I have a fundamentally different perspective on the roots of Christianty.
I do not believe that Christianity is a grand theory which was devised by
people asking the question "What's really going on here?". Rather, I
believe that Christianity was God initiated. He desired a relationship
with man and devised a way to have that relationship. Now, you may say
that my belief, that it is God inititated, is just my answer to your first
question. My response is, the fact that it is God initiated is both
historical and personnel. Historically, the Jewish biblical history has
been strenghened by each archeological discovery. The person of Jesus is
historical and his story is recorded not only biblically but in the
secular "press" of the day. Personnally, God jumped right in the middle
of my very comfortable life and said I want more for you - I want to know
you. The discussion of this topic is probably off issue, but I would love
to discuss it via email (antcliff@norfolk.infi.net).
The parallel discussion that I keep stumbling into in organizations is
Leadership. We have had a pendulum swing from autocratic leaders to team
based activities that I don't see as fully healty. I am currently serving
on two "teams" which are intentionally leaderless. We rotate the
leadership around and take on a variety of roles. We agree by consensus,
etc. The progress of these teams has been incredibly slow. All parties
seem to be afraid to step forward for fear of being seen as taking
inappropriate leaderhip. My view is that the primary pupose of a leader
is to provide vision. Without a vision the team meanders (slight
expansion of biblical quote).
The connection between the two thoughts is that there is a mental model
that says that the combined minds of people will come up with the "best"
there is. I would suggest that as we look back over truly remarkable
organizations there were truly remarkable INDIVIDUALS who were the
catalysts for these organizations. We are dousing some of these catalysts
by telling them that if the idea did not come from group think it is not
worth pursuing.
OK, where have I been myoptic? :)
<>< rich <><
Richard R. Antcliff work - R.R.Antcliff@larc.nasa.gov
Measurement Science & Technology Branch home - Antcliff@norfolk.infi.net
Mail Stop 493 (757) 864-4606
NASA Langley Research Center fax (757) 864-8315
Hampton, VA 23681 www mstb.larc.nasa.gov
--Rich Antcliff <r.r.antcliff@larc.nasa.gov>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>