This is a post in my series on organizing ”between and beyond.” Other posts are here. The purpose of this post is to reflect on subjects occupying my mind. I make no claim to fully believe what I write. Neither do I pretend that others have not already thought or written about the same subject. More often than not, I take up, combine, and add to already existing thoughts and ideas.
What is on my mind?
I’m currently reading Peter B. Vaill’s book Learning as a Way of Being. Waill introduces seven qualities, or modes, of learning as a way of being:1
Self-directed learning
Creative learning
Expressive learning
Feeling learning
On-line learning
Continual learning
Reflexive learning
These modes overlap and interrelate in countless ways.2
Similarly, generative organizing is self-directed, creative, continual, and reflexive. It’s about expressing our felt sense for a situation. It’s to discover in the real time of the situation how to act effectively.3
Institutional learning is the antithesis of learning as a way of being. Likewise, institutional organizing is the antithesis of generative organizing.
Notes:
1 Peter B. Vaill, Learning as a Way of Being: Strategies for Survival in a World of Permanent White Water (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series, 1996), p. 56.
2 Ibid., pp. 86–86.
3 Ibid., p. 155.
Related posts:
Organizing in between and beyond posts
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