Learning organizations, impacts and longevity

kenoli Oleari kenoli at igc.org
Tue Feb 5 13:16:39 PST 2002


Lin -- I'm hoping for some more thoughts from the list, also.  This
issue affects us on a difficult level, because most of the consulting
work that is available comes from a perspective that only takes into
account the immediate internal needs of a client.  This affects the
way we make money.  It is the unusual client that moves to a higher
level in its thinking.  Some of our icons like Meg Wheatley have
decided to stop practicing for this reason, but they are at a point
in their career when they can either afford this or attract plenty of
other kind of work.  I'm noticing how many of my colleagues accept
whatever work is available and get good at it and then periodically
melt down feeling like what they are doing is not feeding them.  Some
even get confused and surprised and not sure what to do when a client
comes along that is willing to take a broader perspective.

As world citizens, it is an issue for us about how we are going to
carry the dialog about the future of the planet forward in our work.
After all, where else does this work get done than in our everyday
lives.  And yet as hired consultants, the system seems to place the
decision about how this conversation is focused in the hands of the
people hiring us, people who have a very rarified interest and who
are financially driven to look at the situation with a different
priority than that of the global system.  This is especially
important for those working predominantly in a business setting as
business is having a greater and greater influence on the future of
everyone and everything.  It is not as though business goes on in one
place and then the work that affects our futures goes on somewhere
else.  This is it.

Kenoli



>Hi Kenoli:  you have given me so much to think about.  I don't have the time
>today to really think through your comments or to add anything - however I
>thought it important to post with you that the issue of putting walls around
>the ' whole ystem' of a company (a contradiction in terms) so that it can
>exclude issues like environmental degradation and exploitation of local
>populations has sat brewing with me for some time and I've pushed it to one
>side.  So now its out !   I'll get back on line in a couple of days - in the
>meantime, I'm looking forward to hearing from our OS colleagues.
>
>Lin Grist
>Chrysalis Consulting
>UK
>
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--
Kenoli Oleari, Horizons of Change, http://www.horizonsofchange.com
1801 Fairview Street, Berkeley, CA  94703   Voice Phone: 510-601-8217,
Fax: 510-595-8369, Email: kenoli at igc.org (or click on: mailto://kenoli@igc.org)

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