it takes an enterprise
October 19, 2014 The W. Edwards Deming Institute® Presents:
Sunday Keynote Presentation
IT TAKES AN ENTERPRISE - Current Neuroscience and Knowledge of Psychology One paradox in healthcare, the application of modern 21st century science through 10th century organization models, may finally be on a path of extinction. Going forward it will take an enterprise. In an enterprise, like any human social organization, it is the relationships between the components - the human beings that shape the enterprise. As human beings, our window to the systems to which we are a part is dependent upon a part of us -- particularly the human brain. A root cause for many of today’s organizational problems arises from contradictions between our common sense misconceptions about how our brains function and how they actually function. Our beliefs and habits are like apps on a tablet or wizards or macros in a software program; they simultaneously open one set of possible actions and conceal other sets. Like the belief in a flat earth – which existed and persisted because that is how the world appears to the eye - such misconceptions unnecessarily limit our understanding and strategies for effective action. Many of these contradictions can be resolved in ways that enhance our understanding and increase the effectiveness of our actions, but first they need to be understood. Our common sense notions of how we know what we know and do what we do are based on 17th century rationalism. Yet modern neuroscience tells us we may perhaps be at our most rational when we understand and accept that we first and foremost are inherently irrational.
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The message will be simple --It is this: 1. The conceptual knowledge we need to accomplish what we want to accomplish in our organizations already exists; the barrier is not a knowledge deficit. 2. The barrier to accessing and incorporating this knowledge into our daily practice is our human biology. The barrier is both individual and social. 3. We need new common sense theories and knowledge of how we know, learn and act that are consistent with our biology and live in the question “what are the ‘levers’ for both understanding and effective action in a trans-rationalistic world?”; what both philosophers and neuroscientists describe as an enacted world.
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Sunday Keynote Presentation
IT TAKES AN ENTERPRISE - Current Neuroscience and Knowledge of Psychology One paradox in healthcare, the application of modern 21st century science through 10th century organization models, may finally be on a path of extinction. Going forward it will take an enterprise. In an enterprise, like any human social organization, it is the relationships between the components - the human beings that shape the enterprise. As human beings, our window to the systems to which we are a part is dependent upon a part of us -- particularly the human brain. A root cause for many of today’s organizational problems arises from contradictions between our common sense misconceptions about how our brains function and how they actually function. Our beliefs and habits are like apps on a tablet or wizards or macros in a software program; they simultaneously open one set of possible actions and conceal other sets. Like the belief in a flat earth – which existed and persisted because that is how the world appears to the eye - such misconceptions unnecessarily limit our understanding and strategies for effective action. Many of these contradictions can be resolved in ways that enhance our understanding and increase the effectiveness of our actions, but first they need to be understood. Our common sense notions of how we know what we know and do what we do are based on 17th century rationalism. Yet modern neuroscience tells us we may perhaps be at our most rational when we understand and accept that we first and foremost are inherently irrational.
Page 1 of 2
The message will be simple --It is this: 1. The conceptual knowledge we need to accomplish what we want to accomplish in our organizations already exists; the barrier is not a knowledge deficit. 2. The barrier to accessing and incorporating this knowledge into our daily practice is our human biology. The barrier is both individual and social. 3. We need new common sense theories and knowledge of how we know, learn and act that are consistent with our biology and live in the question “what are the ‘levers’ for both understanding and effective action in a trans-rationalistic world?”; what both philosophers and neuroscientists describe as an enacted world.
Page 2 of 2
