Arie de Geus Presenter

1
SOL-UK (London) Report Out on Marblehead II
June 6, 2005
31 attendees even split academics /
business Hosts LSE Complexity Science Group
Learning versus non-learning sends wrong message
better to think of good and poor learning
organisations
Arie de Geus (Presenter)
2. Role in SOL
3. SOL History
Danger
1. Interests
a. President and Mentor SOL-UK
a. Out of MIT Centre for Organisational Learning
a. Decision Taking as Learning Process
b. Sits on SOLs Global Board

• b. Action Research Approach successfully
  brought together
• Practioners own the problems / can take action
• Researchers develop innovative solutions
• Consultants build competency
• (cited examples in Ford / HP / and others)

b. Scenario Planning
c. Attended Marblehead I and II
c. Scenario Planning / micro-worlds
d. Peter Senge CEO Network
c. SOL established _at_ 2000 -- now 30 to 40 SOL
fractels globally
Marblehead I (2001)
Marblehead II (2005)
5. Unilever Project
6. What is SOL about?

• Nation states no longer able to control own
  destiny financially / socially
• Creates power vacuum -- instability
• How should global companies react to this
  challenge? How can we defend ourselves?

• Social and ethical impact of food distribution on
  developing companies

• Safe place for people and organisations to share
  experiences and collaborate

Agreed area for future work
Decision Taking as a Learning Process

• Generated little interest to follow up

Outcome
Issue

• Be transparent as possible
• Apply basic rights in business
• 4000 companies have sign up to UN business
  charter covering Human Rights, ILO rule, Kyoto,
  etc
• Report progress to UN annually

Learning (Piaget Model)
Key Outcome
Issues
Decision Taking

• Piaget model of learning

SOL fractels have been challenged to come up with
Action Research projects in the area of decision
taking
External Reality

• Language based social interaction

• Takes too long

4. Key Points
Learning by assimilation

• Language carries meaning

• Available signals not picked up

• The social divide
• Redefining Growth
• Variety and inclusiveness
• Attracting talented people and realising their
  potential
• The role of the corporation
• The system seeing itself

Explained by?
Mental Models
Delay
SOL Action Research Projects?

• Institutional perception

• Blind to external factors

Learning by accommodation
Arie de Greus argued strongly that business
needed to drive the agenda for the project

• Quality of output difficult to measure

• Take action

• Recent research in Neuroscience tells us we first
  process information through our emotional brains
  rather than rational brains. Up to 95 of
  information lost!!

rwh//Sol Marbelhead II.PPT
June 10, 2005