austraLasia 1513
1st April - let's not be foolish; let's face up to some wicked problems instead
ROME: 1st April 2006 -- Something that Fr Vecchi said later, echoed by Fr Chavez last year: "...the scope created by modern technology, which can build relationships, provide a self-image and begin an effective dialogue with interlocutors who are invisible but nonetheless real...Here especially there is need for a change of mentality" (AGC370). "...it is a question of....reflecting on the sort of communication model we are using to bring about growth in the Congregation itself and its communication" (AGC390).
Now, it would seem foolish not to consider a new world of discovery about 'communication models', 'effective dialogue'. There is a vast area developing, in the knowledge management field, but extending to fields involving collective memory, collaborative modelling. If you use Google you already benefit from these discoveries, without knowing the engine beneath the bonnet. Not that one has to know all that much about engines, except that if you put the wrong fuel in at one end, at the other end the engine may suddenly cease working! It helps to know something, then,
For example, there is an Institute called Compendium, which involves itself in 'sharing ideas, creating artifacts, making things together and breaking down the boundaries between dialogue, artifact, knowledge and data'. What Compendium has worked out over experience and time, is an 'ontology' (which really means a list of categories) that can be applied to help map a discussion where the arguments seem to go all over the place. That can be pretty helpful! Communities have lots of discussions like that and yet are all about building "relationships...self-image...and effective dialogue" and yes, even with people "who are [sometimes] invisible but nonetheless real"! The world represented in Compendium's research is a world often dealing with apparently insoluble problems. Great minds are coming up with new ways of describing the human social reality best represented by talk, discussion, argument, dialogue.
There isn't a person alive who doesn't know about fragmentation, described by the researchers above as "forces that change collective intelligence, forces that doom projects and make collaboration difficult or impossible". Some community meetings would fit that description, would they not? It helps to be able to name and image the phenomenon pulling something apart which is potentially whole. That's us, our communities, our EPP, our EPC, whatever. Fragmentation is a condition where people see themselves as more separate than united, where information and knowledge is scattered and chaotic. Social complexity is one of the forces leading to fragmentation - but it also holds our projects together.
At this point, enter a research discovery, or term useful to describe a reality: a 'wicked problem'. Did you know spiritual life is full of 'wicked problems' and I'm not talking about sin? A 'wicked problem' is a problem where (1) Everyone seems to have his or her own definition of the problem (2) there is no 'stop' rule; problem solving finishes when you run out of time, money, or energy, not because you find the definitive solution! (3) the solutions tends to be better or worse, not right or wrong (4) the problem is unique.... and so on. Problems that are not 'wicked' are 'tame'. Tame problems can be complex but they can be defined, have usually one right solution, fit the pattern of other problems and so on. There's a few tame problems around, but possibly more wicked ones.
The Congregation wants us to change our mentality, be converted over something - whatever that something is, it is more likely to be a 'wicked' than a 'tame' problem. If we think that the person in charge (RM) has given the solution to a group of people (Provincials - who then give it to Rectors) to implement, we've made the first gross error, thinking something to be 'tame' which is in fact 'wicked'. Conversion is usually a wicked problem. Sometimes we can be very good at skilled incompetence - where we look good because we study the problem and tame it. Except that like a good lion some problems do not benefit from simple 'capture'; their wildness has a beauty and strength that should not be 'tamed'.
Instead, once there is shared understanding (different people thinking wildly differently ideas can still share) and shared commitment to arriving at solutions, there is hope. You get shared understanding and commitment when people turn up to meetings, say things respectfully even when they disagree, seek God's will in common - at this point I'm drifting back to the more familiar language in a dozen Salesian documents, but fresh language can sometimes give us fresh insights.
April, with its built-in paschal pauses, might be just the right moment for going back to those documents, and/or for learning a little about 'wicked problems'. Google it.
Ever wanted to actually map a conversation-discussion-argument? I recommend 'Compendium'. Google it. Tackling Social Communications in our province or community is a 'wicked problem'. See how 'Compendium' handles this in terms of the Rector Major's AGC 390 letter on www.bosconet.aust.com/bnet06sc.htm (or if that link doesn't work, the 'Communications in abundance' page from the home page).
_______________________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
1st April - let's not be foolish; let's face up to some wicked problems instead
ROME: 1st April 2006 -- Something that Fr Vecchi said later, echoed by Fr Chavez last year: "...the scope created by modern technology, which can build relationships, provide a self-image and begin an effective dialogue with interlocutors who are invisible but nonetheless real...Here especially there is need for a change of mentality" (AGC370). "...it is a question of....reflecting on the sort of communication model we are using to bring about growth in the Congregation itself and its communication" (AGC390).
Now, it would seem foolish not to consider a new world of discovery about 'communication models', 'effective dialogue'. There is a vast area developing, in the knowledge management field, but extending to fields involving collective memory, collaborative modelling. If you use Google you already benefit from these discoveries, without knowing the engine beneath the bonnet. Not that one has to know all that much about engines, except that if you put the wrong fuel in at one end, at the other end the engine may suddenly cease working! It helps to know something, then,
For example, there is an Institute called Compendium, which involves itself in 'sharing ideas, creating artifacts, making things together and breaking down the boundaries between dialogue, artifact, knowledge and data'. What Compendium has worked out over experience and time, is an 'ontology' (which really means a list of categories) that can be applied to help map a discussion where the arguments seem to go all over the place. That can be pretty helpful! Communities have lots of discussions like that and yet are all about building "relationships...self-image...and effective dialogue" and yes, even with people "who are [sometimes] invisible but nonetheless real"! The world represented in Compendium's research is a world often dealing with apparently insoluble problems. Great minds are coming up with new ways of describing the human social reality best represented by talk, discussion, argument, dialogue.
There isn't a person alive who doesn't know about fragmentation, described by the researchers above as "forces that change collective intelligence, forces that doom projects and make collaboration difficult or impossible". Some community meetings would fit that description, would they not? It helps to be able to name and image the phenomenon pulling something apart which is potentially whole. That's us, our communities, our EPP, our EPC, whatever. Fragmentation is a condition where people see themselves as more separate than united, where information and knowledge is scattered and chaotic. Social complexity is one of the forces leading to fragmentation - but it also holds our projects together.
At this point, enter a research discovery, or term useful to describe a reality: a 'wicked problem'. Did you know spiritual life is full of 'wicked problems' and I'm not talking about sin? A 'wicked problem' is a problem where (1) Everyone seems to have his or her own definition of the problem (2) there is no 'stop' rule; problem solving finishes when you run out of time, money, or energy, not because you find the definitive solution! (3) the solutions tends to be better or worse, not right or wrong (4) the problem is unique.... and so on. Problems that are not 'wicked' are 'tame'. Tame problems can be complex but they can be defined, have usually one right solution, fit the pattern of other problems and so on. There's a few tame problems around, but possibly more wicked ones.
The Congregation wants us to change our mentality, be converted over something - whatever that something is, it is more likely to be a 'wicked' than a 'tame' problem. If we think that the person in charge (RM) has given the solution to a group of people (Provincials - who then give it to Rectors) to implement, we've made the first gross error, thinking something to be 'tame' which is in fact 'wicked'. Conversion is usually a wicked problem. Sometimes we can be very good at skilled incompetence - where we look good because we study the problem and tame it. Except that like a good lion some problems do not benefit from simple 'capture'; their wildness has a beauty and strength that should not be 'tamed'.
Instead, once there is shared understanding (different people thinking wildly differently ideas can still share) and shared commitment to arriving at solutions, there is hope. You get shared understanding and commitment when people turn up to meetings, say things respectfully even when they disagree, seek God's will in common - at this point I'm drifting back to the more familiar language in a dozen Salesian documents, but fresh language can sometimes give us fresh insights.
April, with its built-in paschal pauses, might be just the right moment for going back to those documents, and/or for learning a little about 'wicked problems'. Google it.
Ever wanted to actually map a conversation-discussion-argument? I recommend 'Compendium'. Google it. Tackling Social Communications in our province or community is a 'wicked problem'. See how 'Compendium' handles this in terms of the Rector Major's AGC 390 letter on www.bosconet.aust.com/bnet06sc.htm (or if that link doesn't work, the 'Communications in abundance' page from the home page).
_______________________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
