Dear Fil,

Thanks for your note. You say, "I've always taken the goal science as
the understanding of the
'physical' realm," asking "If this is anywhere near right, then what
exactly is a 'problem'?"

It may not be exact, but Merriam-Webster's defines a problem as "a
question raised for inquiry, consideration, or solution." Other
relevant definitions include, "a proposition in mathematics or
physics stating something to be done," or "an intricate unsettled
question, a source of perplexity, distress, or vexation."

It's true that nature has no problems, but science is not organized
around nature. It is organized around our effort to understand
nature. As you say, the problems are ours, and we create different
kinds of organizations to address them.

But -- here I am speaking for myself, and not for Lubomir -- I stated
my view that we require different kinds of organizational structures.
Lubomir's proposal described how a great deal of effective science
and design get done now, especially the kinds of science and design
that break new ground. This is not the majority. The majority of
science is lab work and puzzle solving. The majority of design is
studio work and hands-on production work. Organizing around problems
is for that proportionally small but still large class of problems
that we cannot solve in routine or habitual ways.

We cannot create a single structure, method, or approach that will
"ensure that [our] organizing structures are flexible enough to adapt
to our changing understanding." In the words of the old hymn, new
occasions teach new duties. Things change. Old solutions don't work.
Habitual behaviors fail to solve current problems. We learn and we
adapt.

If we fail to learn and adapt successfully, we will join the ranks of
the extinct. This will also happen if we learn too little about our
world and adapt too late to changing times.

It behooves us to do our best in a continual cycle of change. The
central point of organization theory is that all organizations exist
as products of tension and change, and they perpetually create new
problems even as they address and resolve old ones.

Your question is: "How would we generate a framework to ensure that
the organizing structures are flexible enough to adapt to our
changing understanding?" The answer is: remain alert to the world
around us and to those who live in it, humans and non-humans.
Consider the problems that face us, and change frameworks as we must
to solve them.

Yours,

Ken

--

Prof. Ken Friedman
Institute for Communication, Culture, and Language
Norwegian School of Management
Oslo

Center for Design Research
Denmark's Design School
Copenhagen

+47 46.41.06.76 Tlf NSM
+47 33.40.10.95 Tlf Privat

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"Everything has been done a million times.
Sometimes you use it and it's yours;
another time you do it and it's still theirs."

-- Elizabeth Murray