Intro - Rod Jacobs LO11334

Rod Jacobs (rjacobs@dmci.net)
Mon, 9 Dec 96 19:59 EST

Greetings!
I have been a lurking subscriber for several months, and hope that
I can contribute to this forum in the future. I was introduced to the
concepts of LO through a leadership workshop facilitated by the Michigan
Education Leadership Collaborative during the summer of 1995.
In January of this year I became involved as a convener in a
community transformation project whose purpose is "to create a community
where citizens individually and collectively increase their desire and
ability to meet their own needs, the needs of the community and the needs
of the larger environment in which they live." The project utilizes many
of the concepts articulated in the LO list, and draws much of its theory
on the interactive design model of Jamshid Gharajedaghi and includes many
advisors too numerous to name.

The Jackson CommUnity Transformation Project can be found at
www.jackson.cc.mi.us/CommUnity/default.html

I work for a non profit organization which finds its community
within the economic development systems of the city/county in which I
live, work and play. The organization is currently undergoing a dramatic
transformation in which it is hoped, by those facilitating the change and
many of the "staff", a LO will emerge throughout the economic development
system.
A voracious reader and student, I have always somewhat rebelled at
formal education which, in my experience, frowned upon my spirit of
inquiry - independent study was always where I excelled and my learning
excellarated. I am continually sharing the resources on which I draw -
readings, performance and visual arts, film, tools - and am often chided
by friends, spouse children and co-workers for my seeming insatiability.
As quickly as I ingest, I share through dialogue, discussion, advocacy,
but usually by contributing to our in-house library, making the material
available for any and all who in their own time might seek out personal
discovery and future sharing. "I can't keep up," is a common refrain. The
LO digest has become a part of my daily regimen.
Recently I was asked by the spouse of one of my co-workers if my
opinions were ever changed by my reading. I admitted that my process of
selecting materials for cognitive consumption were based on those whose
ideas I either agreed with - be it in political sciences, philosophy,
organizational management, (less so in the natural sciences, though it is
growing) etc. - or, in the least, offered an entertainment value that
agreed with my aesthetic sensibilities - be it the literature of the "beat
generation," the compositions of Frank Zappa or The Residents, the dada
and surrealist movements, absurdist drama, etc. ... and at first
mistakenly said that my opinions were unchanged (perhaps unchallenged) by
what I was choosing for myself. However, after a short period of
reflection, I realized and shared with him that as I have read and
reflected on what has been shared on the LO, my thinking has indeed
shifted, and not out of anyone explicitly taking an advocacy stance, but
rather through a deepening understanding of my self.
It is for this reason that I sincerely wish for all the
contributors and "lurkers" to the list a safe and happy celebratory
season. I wish for all a future of sharing, learning, understanding and
love.

Rodney K. Jacobs
rjacobs@gjcc.org
Work: 517.782.8221

"Ah, it is so easy to convert others. It is so difficult to convert
oneself. To arrive at what one really believes, one must speak through
lips different from one's own. To know the truth one must imagine myriads
of falsehoods." - Oscar Wilde

-- 


Rod Jacobs <rjacobs@dmci.net>
 


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