They were not amused – so to speak.

The article contains some answers I found to the questions in my quote.

Winfried Deijmann
‘An educated mind is useless without a focused will and dangerous without a loving heart.’ (wd)

Today I find myself sat at a desk next to colleagues who operated very differently just 6 months ago. The collective knowledge, understanding and varied interpretations of the stimulus we get from the ‘outside world’ has altered our activities. The organisation (ASK) has changed its focus, not by some edict from above but -representative of a common purpose – by the passions and motivations of the individuals.

The values at the heart of the organisation enable a degree of consistency, but that isn’t necessarily how it learns – indeed, it’s not how I learn. So much is unconscious and autonomic that even the human body operates in blissful ignorance of how or why – yet I adapt and learn from my environment.

I fear that if the organisation of which I form part does not learn we will surely go the way of the Western Black Rhino of West Africa (extinct since 2006). Part of the question we’re exploring may be as simple as terminology – is what I’m describing best classified as ‘learning’ or ‘adapting’? Or just simply ‘changing’? (And, given how unconsciously learning can take place, can we consider adapting to be a parallel or even a synonym to learning?)

And how do we adapt at organisational, rather than individual, level? In as much as an organisations’ actions are a result of the actions, dialogues and behaviours of the individuals within it, is a ‘learning organisation’ one where the behaviours of – and relationships between – its staff are the most self-aware and the most committed to acting as wisely and productively as possible. Can we even extend that to say that relationships are the behavioural equivalent of the practices that enable organisations to share knowledge: that we haven’t developed software systems for ‘Behavioural Management’ because its a ‘wetware’ issue – the behaviours actually are us, rather than merely an attribute of us?

Mind, I think, is a process of silent conversation with oneself, between the I as the subject and the me as the object – drawing on George Herbert Mead.

Anyway, an organisation does not have a body, cannot think for itself and cannot learn. Nor does it have a heart so forget about shared values as the heart of the organisation.
Regards, Stephen