Theory of Knowledge

["Gordon Hall" <g.hall@dln.org.uk>]

Might I fully agree with John Dowd when he indicates the need for our =
managers to move from action to thought.

Might I in contrast challenge Bob Wilson when he says "From the System =
of Profound Knowledge there is no such practical method."

Are we stuck in this mindset? - that we have to provide a practical =
method.

If we can change the perception of a manager then he/she will see the =
many new methods that are available to him/her. If we have not changed =
his/her thinking they will "copy without understanding"

Can we achieve a step change in our own thinking?

We in Aberdeen are slowly but surely getting a project off the ground in =
the context of safety in the oil industry. Their initiative for 2006 =
(into which they are putting great resources) is "Personal =
Responsibility for Safety" - to me this reflects old reductionist and =
mechanistic thinking - and the usual thinking that it is the person at =
the work face who could be more diligent.=20

So our project is to research, by talking to a whole range of people, =
the thinking of the organisations. A simple example - they have =
incentive schemes to achieve "X" number of man-hours with no lost time =
accidents. They do this because they think that they can "motivate" =
people. (theory - incentives motivate.) Once they are aware of this =
theory then we can facilitate the opening out of their thinking - are =
you sure this theory is right - what evidence is there to support it? - =
is there evidence that would contradict this theory - etc etc.

Our aim is to move the industry from creating new initiatives each year =
based on unchanging theory - and into actual awareness of the theories =
they are using.



Gordon Hall
The Deming Learning Network
Aim: Continual organisational improvement through the application of =
learning
Tel: 00 44 1358 721258
e-mail: g.hall@dln.org.uk
web site: www.dln.org.uk