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).
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