All entries for Sunday 30 November 2008

System of Profound Knowledge an LO

After focusing these last couple of days on the System of Profound Knowledge, and trying to find ways of connecting the values illustrated in it,  with the theme of Lerning Organisation ,I have concluded that what Deming is doing is offering advice to managers in order to begin the learning process.

To cut a long story short by reading and most importantly by applying the principles presented in the System of Profound Knowledge, insightful managers are in a position to understand three critical aspects of the organisation they belong to :

1) how the system operates

2) the interactions between the components of the system (people as well as other resousres)

3)what are the outcomes? and can they be controlled? and to what extend

The meaning is that the leader needs to acquire knowledge of the way the organisation functions.

But this knowledge goes beyond just being able to deal with what is happening currently(the "adaptive" knowledge Senge analyses in The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization, 1990), the aim is to focus on the future. The kind of knowledge the System of Profound Knowledge provides is closer to the "generative" knowledge Senge analyses in the same book. Because, the objective is for an organisation to understand how things work and also constantly try to detect what can be done in order to improve in the future.

And is't this exactly what Deming says about continuasly redifining and reinventing an organisation?

: 30 Nov 2008 16:04 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem