Thursday, November 13, 2008

20 Year-old Thoughts more valid than ever

Wandering around in different and quite heterogeneous fields (e.g. system dynamics, SoL Network, lean thinking, team learning, knowledge workers 2.0) thoughts are racing through my mind (pretty much like the underwood in a forest).

Nothing seems to happen for quite some time - and then: BANG!

Jay W. Forrester's Banquet Talk (actually the picture of Jay W. Forrester was taken at the 2007 ISDC in Boston, where he, aged 89 by this time, held a speech) at the international meeting of the System Dynamics Society, in Stuttgart, Germany, July 13, 1989, has caught my eye (while laying on top of a pile of books about lean thinking).

Finishing his talk he says,
"...It means that learning in one field becomes applicable to other fields. There is now a promise of reversing the trend of the last century that has been moving away from the "Renaissance man" toward fragmented specialization. We can work towards an integrated, systemic, educational process that is more efficient, more appropriate to a world of increasing complexity, and more compatible with a unity in life." (Talk transcript: D-Memo 4165-1
Even after almost 20 years, this is true today. What is your feeling about it? How do we know that we have reached the next level of well-being?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Jay's quote blew me away. He said that 20 years ago? He is a true inspiration.

Thank you Ralf for bringing it to our attention :-)