Since Gary has forwarded the note he sent me to the list, I'll forward the
reply I sent him to the list too. Here it is:
Hi Gary,
Thanks for your note. It brings to mind the story of Aristotle and Plato
and their radically different approaches to logic and reason. Aristotle's
view was that we can never understand anything in isolation, that
understanding only comes from looking simultaneously at the whole, whereas
Plato's view was that the only way to understand anything was by breaking
things down into component parts. Thus, the two of them held this great
debate placing the wholistic logic of Aristotle against the linear logic of
Plato. Ultimately, Plato won, but he didn't win because his approach was
more accurate; indeed, a linear logic is generally always less accurate.
No, he won, ironically, because Aristotle was right! Looking at everything
at once (e.g., mutual causality) was way too complex and difficult for
people to track, but they could handle the relative simplicity of Plato's
logic (another way to say it is that it is shallow, thus, for example, the
"platonic" relationship). The end result is that we now live in a society
that relies heavily on a linear logic, such as counting a person's age,
height, waist, number of women slept with, size, etc., and not the things
that really matter, such as integrity, courage, honesty, and depth. There
is also a companion distinction between a process of discovery
(problem-finding) vs. a process of choice (problem-solving). By helping
your clients to discover what they want, they make a different set of
choices than if you had simply started with alternatives. By my experience,
most of the really tough decisions we face in life are ill-structured, yet
most of the decision models that exist are appropriate only for structured
decisions. Thus, while Aristotle still appears to have been right, he was
never the pragmatist.
Once again I want to encourage you to send your note to the entire list and
not just to me. While I appreciate your communication, there are probably a
lot of people out there who would also be interested in both your thoughts
and mine.
Yes, all the best for the holidays!
Larry
-----Original Message-----
From: Management Education and Development Discussion
[mailto:
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU] On Behalf Of Gary Lundquist
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 10:15 AM
To:
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Subject: Fw: Decisions, Decisions
Colleagues,
Earlier this week, I hit reply, and sent this note just to Larry Pate. He
encouraged me to resend to the list.
Best,
Gary
> Larry,
>
> Thanks for bringing up the difference between structured and
> ill-structured decisions.
>
> I work with ill structured decisions in my consulting, and have
> developed closely structured processes for achieving repeatably
> valuable results.
>
> For instance, I help companies set corporate goals. If I just asked
> them what their goals are, the answer would be poor at best. Instead,
> I start them thinking more broadly, then bring in a binning technique,
> then ask for statements of success on binned items, and typically
> create time-able, assignable, achievable, measurable objectives as
> steps toward each bin. Finally, we write a concise definition of each
> goal.
>
> When we are done, we have way more than a list of goals. We
> comprehend what it means to have the resulting goals and can progress
> to development of strategy for reaching the goals.
> Just as important, the richness of detail enables marketing of the
> goals (as strategic directions) for buy-in and support in both
> management and staff.
>
> We never create a suite of alternatives and choose among them.
>
> To define a corporate brand, I use eight dimensions of inquiry along
> with the goals/strategies process. The brand is a logical,
> manageable, repeatable output of this process. I'm sure, equally
> viable processes have been developed by others. Without such tools,
> brand definition would be just gut instinct.
>
> Scenario development, simulation methods, and game theory are all
> tools for approaching complex, ill structured decisions.
>
> Global markets, financial intertwining, political moves, and social
> change are all way too difficult to handle without software systems.
> Perhaps my facilitated decision making may one day become embedded in
> software.
>
> Best to all for the holidays.
>
> Gary