Reflections Winter 1999 [antikvár]

From the Founding FditorWelcome to issue 2 of Reflections. We have learned a great deal in launching a new journal and, hopefully, you will see in each successive issue evidence of our own learning.We all know that start-ups reveal errors of various sorts no matter how hard one tries to avoid them and we discovered that we made a gigantic one. What happened is that we ended up running the original unedited and, in many ways, unintelligible transcript of Don Michael's interview with Otto Scharmer in issue 1 of Reflections. Don had graciously spent time fixing it up and we had an edited version that should have appeared in print, but alas it was the unedited one that appeared. We will, of course, learn from this how to put in additional check points to avoid anything like this from happening again. Don says "Please don't read the one in the journal, it often does not make sense." We join him in asking you to read the edited version which is full of the insights we promised you. It is available on our web site at www.sol-ne.org/michael.I want to use my editor's introduction in each issue to think out loud a little bit and try some ideas out on you, the readers. For example, we want to focus some issues of Reflections on specific topics, such as "Requirements for a Sustainable Environment," "Different Forms of Systems Thinking," "The Role of Culture in Learning and Change," "The Practice and Art of Change Agentry," and so on. If you have ideas for topics, suggestions for papers, even the energy to volunteer to be a guest editor, let us know. We have the freedom to be nontraditional, so don't be afraid to make suggestions that are "out of the box."I also want to share with you my own excitement in launching this journal. The meetings of our editorial group are great fun, especially as we feel the freedom to be creative. Creativity and innovation are clearly fun, but the conditions for innovation to take hold are complex and should not be ignored. On the personal level, I have noticed that my ability to be creative is very much dependent on having other areas of life under control. If work, family, or personal arenas are in turmoil, it is harder to be creative. Check this out in your own experience.The implication is that we need to understand the realities that operate in our own psyches and in our environments, and we need to get them under control. One of the aspects of the environment that we understand least, and therefore have least control over, is the cultural assumptions that operate in our various membership and reference groups. Those tacit and taken-for-granted assumptions can be both an aid and a hindrance to innovation and, therefore, need to be understood and managed. I will press our editorial committee and board to stay focused on culture so that we do not unwittingly try to do things that are counter-cultural and, therefore, not feasible. If what we want to do is desirable enough, and if it is counter-cultural with respect to some important constituencies, then let us face squarely the need to change culture and to look at that kind of change realistically.