Jeff brooks included a quote from Robert Bacal in a response to Rick
Karash
>> On Tue, 8 Oct 1996, Robert Bacal wrote:
>> > ....is it possible for a group of individuals to
>> > collectively understand a complex system?
>>
>> Do individuals and groups have a cognitive limitation in grasping complex
>> systems?
Then Jeff posed follow-on questions.
>If one accepts the premise that individuals have limits on what they can
>understand, does that imply that collections of individuals have limits as
>well?
>
>I'd wonder what "understand" means in the context of individuals vs. the
>context of collections of individuals. I'd also wonder how one could tell
>if a collection of individuals understood something. I don't have any
>easy answers to these questions, but I think they're important if one is
>to answer the original question.
The best answer to knowing when I understand a complex system is that I
feel an integral part of the system. This is a profound feeling that the
mechanistic parts of the system are extensions of self. If you have ever
been immersed in a sport you perhaps have felt that the equipment simply
extended our capability.
Now, in those super times when I have been a member of an achieving team
the sensation is the same. However, the feeling that there are other
people contributing their capabilities to guide the system to its goal I
find very difficult to describe. Not too long ago a team of seven people,
who among them had 120 years of experience in the organization, presented
and had accepted a 34 million dollar strategic plan. They had a deep
dialog with the CEO and direct reports. It was a conversation that the
team did not think possible just a few months before. But they
demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the system and a plan that
to the CEO and others was compelling.
My impression of those seven people is that they walked out of that
boardroom about six inches above floor level. Surely each of them was
about two inches taller. It happens rarely but it is a real high.
My indicator of a real understanding of a system is when people can feel a
part of it and it a part of their being. This is the essence of Zubof's
Informatted organization. In my experience really good teams demonstrate
that they collectively enter into this relationship, i.e. they are
embedded in and embed the system. They act as if they mutually feel the
system.
--bhobler@worldnet.att.net Bill Hobler
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>