>But, maybe like "the learning organisation" itself, unlearning is a
>catching phrase and we shouldn't fight it. As long as we remember
>what we are after and don't damage ourselves with a distorted
>pursuit, it may be that more progress will be made with such terms.
>
Or .... is it the use of such "catchy" terms that has good thinking
>turn into management fads?
It's both. We're talking about memes here. We can't easily control 'em ,
they're selfish and they replicate. They will mutate, inevitably
[mutate=distort] AND , yes, they turn into fads, or rather they are fads,
and they 'catch' us so they can infect us so they can replicate. Just like
the 'system' of the 'corporation' is a thing and not anything under the
control of the people inside it. In the jargon a company is a meme
complex. As Michael himself says [I paraphrase] 'organisations are
constructed in language', and memetics tells us they ARE language...
The task is to try to shape memes that at least set out [sensitivity to
initial conditions] in vaguely the right direction in possibility space,
before they mutate...
--from Arthur Battram, organiser of the LGMB project 'Tools for Learning', which helps local authorities to apply complexity concepts to learning. apb@cityplex.demon.co.uk "complexity is in here... and simplicity is out there...if we want it to be..."
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>