I am resubmitting a piece I sent on The SPIRITUAL DIMENSION 18 Nov 96
LO11034 together with a covering note as I think there is a moral
dimension to the LO, particularly evident when you stand back and see the
bigger picture from the perspective of developing countries. I spend a lot
of time in SEAsia and lived and taught in Papua New Guinea for almost 10
years and view the technology rush with a lot of trepidation on their
behalf. The haves and havenots scenario, info - rich and info poor
imbalances and tensions concern me a lot. I am presently developing a
strategy to try and empower entire nations in information literacy for the
21st century - but thats another story.
I can see tremendous convergences of learning organisation/organism
thinking, systems thinking and what, from a Christian perspective, I see
as the cardinal precept of human destiny - change - transformation -
metamorphosis into a perfection in which all the parts of this world and
the universe, including human life work together in a fanatastic gestalt
surpassing our limited and limiting imagination.
For "Ear hath not heard, eye hath not seen, nor the heart of man entered
into, what God has prepared for those that love him" (rough paraphrase
from memory) ......and numerous other passages such as " when I was a
child I thought as a child - in parts - but when that which is perfect is
come, the parts disappear in the whole . . . now I see through a
reflection in a polished metal - a puzzle, but when the perfect is come,
the individual components will cease to be . . . and I shall
know.........etc.........
IMO the reason why Senge and others turn to Christian teaching is that the
designer of the model "HUMAN" knew what he was doing and even arranged the
production of a handbook on its maintenance and development
....to the extent we are human, in our various 'organisational' grouping,
families, businesses, institutions, communities, we need to realise the
bigger picture of who we collectively are, on a global basis. The
understanding of what its all about and what it can all mean if we allow
it will, as the writings tell us, be ' beyond' (presumably rational)
understanding, but quite comprehensible to the child in us all who can
still respond to wonderful gestalts stories and images and free
relationships ......
To the extent we approach the heart and mind of the Creator in seeking the
soul of the LO, we approach moral issues, and cannot avoid them. We look
to win-win solutions for example, equity, empowerment, dialogue
etc.........
WHAT FOLLOWS IS MY CONTRIBUTION ON THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION AND DONALD KERR'S
>Donald Kerr wrote:
>
>> When one attempts to follow a moral code, one's success breeds arrogance,
>> then failure.
>>
>> When one admits it is impossible to follow a moral code, one's humility,
>> breeds trust, then learning...then organizational learning.
MY REPLY
This thread is getting very interesting in itself. However, I think it is
appropriate to begin to link in with the concept of the LO
THis is something I have been working on as a designer attempting to teach
design and innovation to non designers in a new Bachelor of Multimedia
which my university introduced this year. It seems difficult not to bring
in ideas of cosmology and metaphysics and the teaching of the Christian
LOGOS when dealing with the LO. Peter Senge touches on ideas of Metanoia -
repentance or restructuring one's perceptions - for example in his work on
generating and communicating personal vision, and the whole process of
dialog the suspending of judgement, etc.
[If you subscribe to the Christian viewpoint, then it is quite easy to
explain this - as the Creator - who created the dynamics of thought and
interpersonal interaction - uses the metaphor of a living body [= of
Christ] in describing how we relate together as a learning organism -
growing together, etc.
As a information designer I use the three-stage transformation model (John
Christopher Jones) where innovation is dependent on the suspension of
judgement and the creation of a large enough search space to create a
'chaos' in which new patterns can be discerned. The need to actively
engage both left and right brain processing, art with science, cognitive
with affective parallels the Word and Spirit combination required for
Christian growth [into the full stature of the image of Christ].
Suspension of judgement about even one's own identity [losing one's (own
idea of) self inorder to 'find' ones true self and become transformed into
a new image - these processes link well with the conditions which support
innovation in design. Common to design,Christian growth (individual and
group) and the learning organisation/organism, are then
1. the need for dialogue and trust as a precondition for innovation and growth
2. the need to avoid imposing, prematurely, patterns or preconceptions as to
final outcomes
3. allowing new directions to 'emerge' and to fasten these down as their
significance is realised.
Phillipe Duchastel's work on cognitive processing in hypermedia
environments also reflects these models. I am currently developing a set
of diagrams which show these parallels quite clearly.
Peter Wharton
Peter J Wharton
Design
Queensland College of Art
Griffith University
Australia
Ph 3875 3150
--P.Wharton@qca.gu.edu.au (Peter J Wharton)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>