This assumption and therefore, the popular connotation of organizational learning is not only wrong, but dangerously wrong given the reality of the fiercely competitive global marketplace. Organizational learning as data retrieval and storage implies such a minimalist conception of human potential as to border on the absurd. How can I be so sure? Because Chaos assures me it is so. Chaos, the most powerful and encompassing explanation of reality ever known to humankind, proves conclusively that knowledge---all knowledge---is found right "in here" where it has been all along. Think of it! An entire universe of information contained neatly in the mind, the mind of the individual and the mind of the organization.

Chaos, a maximal albeit incomplete (there remains much to be learned) theory of the universe, was formulated only recently through a cooperative venture in exploration, discovery, and learning involving a number of scientific disciplines and led by the science of Einstein - quantum physics. Although the theory of Chaos did not exist before 1977, it's roots are solidly planted in the astounding scientific discoveries of the first three decades of the 20th century - the findings that transformed forever how we conceptualize our experience in the world. Quantum physics, the primary progenitor of Chaos, is not a theory per se since it does not describe or explain reality; rather it is a rigorous procedure for ascertaining how the five human "measuring" devices known as our senses reflect to us events occurring in the quantum universe. Chaos Theory not only describes and explains, but it does so with unprecedented elegance.

Chaos, formally known as the theory of chaotic systems, is a high-powered set of lenses that enables the wearer to see the universe as a vital, dynamic whole reducible not to "parts" but to its essential properties. Today, science embraces five such attributes that together serve as a code of "law" governing the entire cosmos. While by definition, there is but one chaotic system---the universe, the extraordinary canon of Chaos applies directly to and is valid for virtually everything in our everyday world including our individual selves and our enterprises.

Although each of the quintet of core properties---Consciousness, Connectivity, Complexity, Dissipation, and Emergence, is deserving of our full attention in its own right, there is simply not enough room to do so in the short space of this article. Therefore, for the purposes of addressing our subject - the learning organization - I will concentrate on the first, the property of the mind of the universe. Consciousness is the appellation Chaos gives to the surprising revelation that the world is not after all a machine, as the 17th Cartesian metaphor of a "clockwork universe," would have us believe. Rather, it is a vast mind, the elemental substance of which is thought, the essential process thinking.

With out a doubt, Einstein's most brilliant and significant contribution to society was his discovery of the equivalence of energy and matter (E = mc2). Chaos Theory has now taken our understanding of reality a quantum leap forward by demonstrating the "sameness" of energy/matter and thought. Essentially, this means that all "things" experienced in the 3-dimensional world are generated through the fundamental activity of our mind - that is, thinking. In other words, even though it may appear to be solid to the touch, all existence is thought.

"So just what is my point?" you may ask. What does this perplexing notion have to do with the learning organization, allegedly the topic of this discussion? My answer is everything! You see, Chaos is the science of the mind of the universe - the cosmic mind. If the universe is indeed, an immense tapestry of thought produced by the mind, then so too is an organization. On a much smaller scale more suitable to our purposes, Chaos becomes the science of the 'orgmind" - the mind of the enterprise. Because the connection between thinking and learning is self-evident, the best definition of "organizational learning" I know is this: A 'learning organization' is an enterprise that is capable of changing its mind at will and with skill in order to realize the future it envisions and truly desires.

Those bold enough to don the lenses of Chaos understand that not just any old change will do - anymore, that is. Once in our distant past, the rate of learning achieved by means of incremental mental additions - the piecemeal augmentation of new data and facts to one's previously acquired data bank - sufficed. No more! The accelerating pace of change and the escalating turbulence in our environment have stripped us of that luxury forever. Today, enterprises that fail to learn transformatively will quite simply fail. Transformative learning is now management's only realistic and practical answer to surviving and thriving in an marketplace marked by intensifying chaos, dynamical complexity, and discontinuous change.

More daunting for the modern manager than the obvious challenge of "managing change" - a euphemism for coping with turbulence since change cannot and will not be managed or contained - is the extraordinary life or death feat of relinquishing the sense of security and certainty we have derived for centuries from a worldview that holds unwavering stability and absolute control as the prime measures of success. Survival in the future will depend on whether and how quickly we develop and sustain a requisite level of awareness of the dynamics of thought perpetually playing out in the core of the organizational consciousness. The more mindful we are of the dynamic process of thinking as we are thinking the very thoughts that inform our actions and determine for better or worse the results we are able to produce in the "real" world, the greater our chances of survival. An enterprise that masters "org-mindfulness" is capable of revealing to itself errors in its thoughts. Flaws in the orgmind that might otherwise lead to decline can then be corrected and/or exorcised. And therein lay the crux of the matter.

Even though through the persistent practice of org-mindfulness, a system's capacity for learning and change can be raised by an order of magnitude or better, there are still precious few managers who aspire to this transformative level of awareness. Why not? Because the very idea of exposing the imprecision and inaccuracies in our thought is inherently threatening to our ingrained preoccupation with being "right." Nobody likes being erroneous or ignorant, least of all people in positions of influence who for their entire careers have claimed to know it all, to be "learned" rather than a learner.

Argyris and Schön have pointed out the human propensity to engage in "defensive routines"---a psychological dance of sorts designed to ward of any semblance of embarrassment that may result from exposure of error or ignorance.[1] Not only do the really skilled defensive routines camouflage faulty thinking, they also camouflage the camouflage: People and organizations both routinely become engaged in them without being aware of doing so as if operating on autopilot. But this robotic behavior and the painful consequences it produces needn't be the case. The key that unlocks the door of the orgmind making it possible to learn transformatively is none other than org-mindfulness.

So just how does one go about building an organization that can change its mind at will and with skill, a learning organization that has mastered the art and practice of org- mindfulness? The answer may be in the use of three emerging new "thought technologies" that appear to hold great promise for the future of enterprise. These are Dialogue, Metaforming, and a promising invention of my own called Architextural Profiling©. Without belaboring the point, I'll briefly define each learning "tool"; then it's up to you, the reader to do what is necessary to learn more. Dialogue, an extraordinary form of conversation, is perhaps the most familiar of the three. Its most renowned advocate is none other than the late and great scientist, David Bohm, who was a major contributor to the formulation of Chaos. Even though Dr. Bohm was known officially as a theoretical quantum physicist, his best work was performed on the cutting edge of science in pursuit of his life-long mission to explore the nature of the universal property of Consciousness. He taught that dialogue was the mode of communication most likely to lead to the creation of coherent meaning shared among people. According to Bohm, the purpose of dialogue is to reveal the incoherence in thought so that our thinking might be made congruent again. Since dialogue requires its practitioners to suspend their thinking before them, mindfulness of the consciousness is an absolute necessity.

Paradigm, worldview, mental model, theory---call it what you will, a metaphor is a lens we humans wear to view our reality. For example, when I stated that metaphors are lenses, I was trying to make a complex, nebulous, intangible, esoteric concept more explicit, concrete, and readily graspable by speaking about "metaphors" metaphorically. By definition, all human experience is metaphor because, as the Chaos principle of consciousness assures us, "reality" can never be experienced directly but only as symbolizations of reality all of our own making. Metaforming then refers to the subliminal mental process of forming metaphors to explain experience. Of course, the generation of "metaforms" is a perpetual activity of the mind but one of which we are rarely mindful, that is, unless and until we learn how. By adopting the learning technology called metaforming, we can learn how to create meaning mindfully, or org- mindfully as the case may be.

Finally, there is a technology that has evolved over the past two decades, from my personal quest to explore the depths of the orgmind. (Readers who wish to learn more are invited to contact this author directly). The basic premise underpinning Architextural Profiling©; rests on a metaphor that likens organizational designs to the architectures of a great edifices. No architect worthy of his or her fee, would allow the blueprint of a building's framework alone to represent the complete design of the structure. And yet, organizational designers are often content to let the "org chart" suffice as a definitive explanation of a whole system. Profiling is a promising procedure for developing an in-depth grasp of the rich, dynamical, complex, multi-dimensional nature of our organizations that enables those wishing to get to the "bottom" of the orgmind, a powerful means for doing so in rapid and unerring fashion.

Obviously, there is much more to be said about the intriguing notion of organizations that learn. The ideas I have shared represent but a minuscule fraction of a vast reservoir of knowledge yet to be tapped, that will enable society to create mindful work systems where learning and change occur persistently and with conscious intention. Recognizing this reality, my purpose in writing this article has been twofold: First, I hoped to provoke readers into cultivating their own personal capacities for mindfulness so that they, in turn, can help their organizations attain and sustain a profound level of "org-mindfulness." And secondly, I intended to inspire readers to view and explore a powerful new image of organizational learning by looking through the lenses of Chaos-- -the "new" science of the mind of the universe and needless to say, the mind of the organization.

[1] Argyris, C. & Schön, D. (1978). Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective , Addison-Wesley, Reading , MA , USA , 1978.

© Laurie A Fitzgerald, 1995

Revised from original version published in the September 1995 edition of Best Practice Journal. Bedford , England : IFS International Ltd. This article may be reproduced without permission for non-commercial purposes only. For all other uses, click here to contact the author.