http://therehearsalstudio.blogspot.com/2007/07/semiotic-ignorance.html

You’re right, I don’t get it :-)

Capturing the patterns of what people actually do (rather than what they think they do) is something I believe is really important. Don’t get misled by the lists, you seem to go into a tizzy whenever you see a list of nouns. Maybe I should have been more overtly ironic. The lists themselves are hygiene factors, necessary but not sufficient to form the basis for improved performance.

Being able to articulate those patterns (patterns of doing, remember) is, in my opinion, a sensible way of training people into the roles they have to perform.

If I can simplify the pattern description and transfer process, then I can spend time on the real performance aspects, which have to do with management and communications styles, attitude to teamwork, attitude to collaboration, ability to deal with conflict, and so on.

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-Mff23hgidqmHGqbcv.lfskakEtS6qLVHUEMFUG4-?cq=1&p=69

My work on that diagram grew out of Nonaka’s misconceived “definition” of “knowldge” as “justified true belief,” which he attributed to Plato. Reading the THEATETUS for myself, I discovered that Plato had Socrates dismiss this definition as entirely bogus, along with three other attempted definitions.

However, while one gets to the end of Plato’s text without a definition of knowledge, one has learned that the concept of knowledge is tightly coupled to at least three other equally fundamental concepts: memory, being, and description (which may be a poor translation of the Greek λόγος). I see that final concept of λόγος as the more general capacity that lies behind what you wrote about articulation, and I further see it as another one of those skills that has fallen by the wayside in our current approaches to education.

I find it equally profound that you take a process-based approach to such articulation. Another lesson from Plato is that, given all the flux in the world (a pre-Socratic insight), the ACT OF DESCRIBING is more important than any resulting DESCRIPTION, which, while more concrete is also more temporary. I have tried many times to raise this distinction on this blog, as JP himself has observed:

http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2007/05/27/musing-about-nouns-and-verbs/

Unfortunately, on the basis of his above text, he still does not seem to get it. Enterprise work is not about making a whole slew of structures (lists) about people more manageable; it is about making the processes of ENGAGEMENT more effective. If technology can facilitate those processes, so much the better; but the success of the enterprise will still come down to the day-to-day practices of all those who work there. I see your approach to articulation as a healthy contribution to those practices.

I recently watched the Walt Disney picture Ratatouille, where a famous chef said: Anyone can be a great chef. At the romantic end, there is an explanation of this quote: Not a anyone can be a chef, but a great chef can come from any place given the right opportunities. This is what I believe when it comes to a great leader.

Mario Ruiz
@ http://www.oursheet.com