The Bahá'í Community as a Learning Organisation

by Roy Steiner

published in Bahá'í Studies Review, 6
London: Association for Bahá'í Studies English-Speaking Europe, 1996

The state is, moreover, based upon two potent forces, the legislative and the executive ... The focal centre of the ... legislative is the learned--and if this latter great support and pillar should prove defective, how is it conceivable that the state should stand?

In view of the fact that at the present time such fully developed and comprehensively learned individuals are hard to come by, and the government and people are in dire need of order and direction, it is essential to establish a body of scholars the various groups of whose membership would each be expert in one of the aforementioned branches of knowledge. This body should with the greatest energy and vigour deliberate as to all present and future requirements, and bring about equilibrium and order. -Abdu'l-Bahá ⁽¹⁾

Introduction

Almost all large, international organisations ranging from PepsiCo to the United Nations to the Catholic Church, are struggling with the challenge of generating, managing and sharing truly useful knowledge. In the field of organisational development, the ability to capture, organise and distribute experiential knowledge is seen as one of the critical foundations for a learning organisation.⁽²⁾ This challenge is certainly being felt in the Bahá'í community, where the diffuse network of Bahá'í communities is linked only through administrative organisations. Nobody has access to all the knowledge available, yet each believer needs and wants to know what has already been done, which parts are causing problems, and what successes can be replicated. In order for knowledge sharing and generation to take place more easily, some sort of knowledge management system that is easily accessible is vital.

This paper will attempt to lay out some ideas about a knowledge management system focussed on assisting individuals, communities and institutions in generating and sharing experiences and insights that will help them be more successful in their activities. My focus is on experiential and practical knowledge rather than academic scholarship.

Knowledge in the Bahá'í community

The need for a more systematic and organised process of knowledge generation and sharing in the Bahá'í community is critical to its continuing evolution. When you consider situations where knowledge sharing can dramatically improve the success rate of Bahá'í activities the examples are many:

• A Bahá'í wants to set up a school for infants and would like to build on the experiences of communities facing similar socio-economic challenges
• An Institute is tasked with the development of a new believer deepening program, and would like to access other curricula in addition to understanding the key success factors of their organisation
• A community is having a problem with backbiting and would like to find out about innovative solutions that have been developed elsewhere
• A mid-sized community is concerned about its low level of participation and wants to know what actions have worked in other communities
• The feast has been identified as a major area of improvement for a city and the community needs help in developing new approaches
• The Local Spiritual Assembly (LSA) is confronted with a case of sexual abuse in the community and would like to know how other LSA's handled similar situations
• An LSA would like practical advice on how to deal with a young Bahá'í who is breaking the alcohol law, without causing his further estrangement
• A group is planning a proclamation to local religious leaders and would like to know how to tailor their approach
• The National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) wants to distribute updates of the LSA manual
• Regional committees want to share different experiences in conducting unit conventions.

Because of the lack of an organising system and access to such a system, Bahá'ís often end up "reinventing the wheel" or repeating the same mistakes that other communities have already made and painstakingly learned from. Successful experiences are also rarely replicated because information about them is not in a form that allows adaptation to other situations. Even in formal Bahá'í scholarship little is built on the work of others. A recent analysis of citation rates for Bahá'í articles found a surprisingly low rate that led the report's authors to suggest that it might be "related to the lack of an index to Bahá'í periodical materials and the difficulty of obtaining such periodicals."⁽³⁾

The reason for this situation is understandable. The mechanisms for widespread knowledge dispersal occur primarily at selected conferences and in national publications. At present there are few places or institutions that systematically capture knowledge except on an individual basis. The knowledge that is collected is rarely systematically organised and even when it is organised it can rarely be accessed by more than a handful of individuals. As a result there is limited awareness about the knowledge resources that are available in the Bahá'í community.

The technology for knowledge generation and sharing, however, is becoming increasingly available as the electronic networking explodes and computers lower their costs. Just as computerisation of the Bahá'í Writings revolutionised the way Bahá'ís could access the Writings, the Internet (or a Bahá'í Intranet) could revolutionise the way knowledge is generated and shared in the Faith.

Existing knowledge systems

One model system that currently functions extremely well is the "Professional Development" system developed by McKinsey & Co., a premier international management consulting firm. This system was developed in the 1980's when McKinsey found itself falling behind its competitors in the development of new knowledge. In order to rectify this situation, a simple matrix was created, whose axes were industry group and business function was created. For each industry group and function a "practice leadership group" was created which was responsible for knowledge generation and sharing. As a result of this organisation each box within the matrix was claimed by a small group of consultants that not only pushed their thinking in that specific area, but then could relate it to whatever was going on in the rest of organisation. The network is easily accessible from anywhere in the world by computer so that if someone has to comment on the latest development in mining finance they know where to go. The first step in any McKinsey study is to query the Professional Development network and call up the practice leaders to find out the latest knowledge developments.

The factors associated with the success of this and other knowledge management systems include:

• Complete support from senior management
• Simplicity and understandability
• The formation and development of communities of practice
• Dedicated resources to keep a knowledge base up to date
• Balance of top-driven structure and bottom up needs

	Finance	Marketing	Information Systems	Strategy	Organisational Performance	Etcetera
Banking
Manufacturing
Retail
Forest products
Chemicals
Mining
Et cetera

In order to develop its own knowledge management system the Bahá'í community must tackle four related issues:

• Ownership/oversight
• Classification
• Generation and collection
• Access and dissemination

Ownership

Although there are a number of potential coordinators of this knowledge management system, an obvious choice is the Institution of the Learned. Members of this institution are continually called on to bring knowledge and understanding to bear on local situations. They are also the ones who have the greatest access to the knowledge being generated at the community level. Just think of the power of having all Auxiliary Board members (ABMs) linked together via the Internet and developing an evolving database of experience that is easily accessible. The World Centre and various NSAs could also be "owners" of this management system. Whoever the coordinators are, high priority must be given to the vexing issues of security, access, and review protocols to ensure quality.

Possible classification systems

Knowledge classification systems are not just an outgrowth of a sound scientific method. Rather, they are a prerequisite for it because they directly affect the investigator's ability to carry out the steps needed for the development of high quality knowledge. The history of science shows that the functional side of many disciplines did not make rapid progress until a basic classification system was completed. Chemistry made little progress until Mendeleev worked out his periodic table of the elements, and biology would still be in its infancy if taxonomic studies had not laid the groundwork for functional research. Although the classification systems mentioned above have been very extensive in their scope, systems do not have to be universal to be of use. A range of classification systems directed toward specific functional purposes have been widely used in most sciences and they have often been precursors to more universal classification systems. The question before us is what matrix (or functional taxonomy) is appropriate for a Bahá'í knowledge management system. The challenge is to build a skeleton that is flexible enough to allow for expansion in all directions. With the careful selection of indexing categories (and the provision for additional categories and entries) we can develop a system that is a learning system, responsive to its own use. Developing a system that anticipates all additions is simply not feasible. With the Internet's capacity for linking, the categories themselves and their relationships can be much more open as cross referencing becomes almost automatic. Eventually even the "heading" categories can be changed without too much trouble.

A possible set of axes for a Bahá'í knowledge matrix (certainly not a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list) include:

• Activities (feast, committees, teaching, socio-economic development...)
• Issues (racism, women, agriculture...)
• Levels (individual, community, institution...)
• Functions
• Organisations (institutes, children's classes, community events, schools, etc.)
• Goals
• Spiritual Principles
• Geographical (communities, regions...)
• Complexity (introductory, advanced, language level...)
• Sources (Bahá'u'lláh, secondary Bahá'í authors, other authors...)

The following description is one possible approach to creating a knowledge generating matrix. The critical question is: will it assist individuals, communities and institutions in sharing experiences and insights that will help them be more successful in their activities? This system is divided into three activity clusters--teaching, social and economic development, community life (other possible cluster could be individual, community and institution, etc.). The purpose of creating the matrix would be to share key success factors for various activities as well as share lessons learned when there have been challenges.

Teaching (Axes: Activity by target segment)

	Youth	Minorities	Christians	Atheists	Hindus	Etcetera
Proclamations
External affairs
Materials
Firesides
Teaching
Projects
Opposition
Et cetera

Social and Economic Development (Axes: Area of discipline by function)

	Organisation	Funding	Systems	Strategy	Curriculum	Outside Resources
Agriculture
Health
Literacy
Race unity
Schools
Substance abuse
Et cetera

Community Life (Axes = Activity by resource/process)

	Organisation	Innovative	Initiatives	Materials	Evaluation
Feast
Holy Days
Deepening
Centres
Institutes
Children's classes
Et cetera

Knowledge generation

Many organisations have found that the power of knowledge management is only harnessed by creating informal networks of people who do the same or similar kinds of work--people who are often in different or geographically dispersed organisational units. These informal networks have been called the "community of practice." The human ties among such a community are often the part of the formula that is missed or misunderstood by simple knowledge management solutions, since practitioners who are exposed to the same class of problem often develop a sense of mutual obligation to help one another.⁽⁴⁾

Knowledge and experience often do not fit neatly into data warehouses. The challenge for the system is to implement new flexible technologies that can adapt to different forms of data as well as to support and enable those communities of practice. The rush to various technological solutions (networking, groupware, video, data conferencing) have often been disappointing and more often than not, have generated endless unused discussion databases and minimally valuable internal Web sites.

Information technologies must provide a way to form communities, not simply to provide communications. These communities will form and share knowledge on the basis of pull by individual members, not centralised push of information. However, in order to do this they must have the necessary tools to form, evolve, and develop as freely as possible. The primary purpose of the matrix structure proposed earlier would not just be to organise knowledge but, more fundamentally, to create "communities of practice" among the believers or the Institution of the Learned, who would then ensure that relevant knowledge was created and shared.

Access and dissemination

Although electronic access to information has until recently been confined to the technologically advanced nations, this is rapidly changing. It is expected that most countries in Africa, for example, will have full Internet access by mid-1997, and all regions of the planet will have access when two global satellite networks become operational in 2001 (Africa Online Internal Strategy Paper). The Internet is clearly the technology of choice. Issues of access (would just ABMs be able to have access), security (how do we protect privacy, avoid covenant breaking etc.) and review (how can quality be maintained without stifling individual initiative) remain to be resolved.

Conclusion
This paper is designed to stimulate discussion and begin exploration of a few promising directions. Many of the issues related to knowledge management within the Bahá'í community have been addressed by numerous people at various points in time. However given the current level of maturity in the Bahá'í community, the existence of powerful new technologies and the goals of the four year plan, the time may be right for a breakthrough in this area.

After more discussion, a web-based pilot project to explore various system concepts may be viable. However, it the long term it will require significant resources and guidance. Ultimately it is up to the institutions of the Faith to decide whether this is an area in which the community needs to invest resources and energy.

Endnotes

1. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Secret of Divine Civilisation (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1990) 37.
2. Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: the Art & Practice of The Learning Organisation (New York: Doubleday Currency, 1990); Peter Kline and Bernard Saunders, Ten Steps to a Learning Organisation (Virginia: Great Ocean Publishers, 1993).
3. Seena Fazel and John Danesh, "Bahá'í Scholarship: an examination using citation analysis," The Bahá'í Studies Review 5.1 (1995): 13-26.
4. Brook Manville, "Harvest Your Workers' Knowledge," in Management Science (Oct. 1995): 70-75.

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Commentaries published in the Bahá'í Studies Review, vol. 7 (1997).

COMMENTARY on Roy Steiner's "The Bahá'í community as a learning organisation"

Commentator: Kambiz Maani

In the article entitled "The Bahá'í community as a learning organisation," Roy Steiner deals with the notion of "knowledge management systems" and its implications for the Bahá'í community. He proposes a framework based on McKinsey's professional development model where industry groups and key business functions are laid out in a matrix format. In this model each cell of the matrix is assigned to a "practice leadership group" who will take an ownership for collecting, co-ordinating, and assimilating existing knowledge in that area. Steiner proposes an insightful application of this model for the Bahá'í community where dispersed experiences and practices of Bahá'í communities could be collected and made available through electronic media for use by other Bahá'í communities, institutions and individuals.

While the article provides useful concepts and insights, it does not reach the depth of "The Learning Organisation;" a concept popularised by Peter Senge, a systems scientist and management educator, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who in his best-seller The Fifth Discipline,⁽¹⁾ provides a model for a transformation process rooted in a holistic approach. The precepts of a learning organisation, while have a much narrower scope, having much in common with Bahá'í teachings.

According to Senge, there are five "core disciplines" that collectively form the bedrock of a learning organisation (see the diagram on next page). These disciplines are linked to a "deeper learning cycle" comprising three elements : (1) awareness and sensibilities, (2) attitudes and beliefs, and (3) skills and capabilities. This deep learning cycle, in turn, emanates from an "implicate order" or a "new notion of order" where "everything is enfolded into everything".⁽²⁾ Below, I briefly describe the five disciplines of a learning organisation and attempt to draw parallels with Bahá'í teachings.

The first discipline -- personal mastery

Personal mastery is the spiritual dimension of a learning organisation. It rests on the eternal truth that lasting change starts from within. This is the core of the transformation paradigm: that personal transformation precedes social transformation, that trust in a society is built upon truthfulness and trustworthiness of its individual members. Personal mastery calls for integration of reason and intuition (i.e. science and religion), compassion, commitment to truth, and a personal sense of interconnectedness. This inner transformation paradigm has seen a renewed attention by contemporary management and personal development gurus (e.g. Covey, Dyer, Chopra) and has created a "thought revolution" in management and leadership in the post-modern organisation of the western world.

The second discipline - shared vision

Senge writes "A shared vision is not an idea. ...It is rather, a force in peoples' hearts, a force of impressive power." Organisational theorists and leaders are increasingly cognisant of the power of shared vision as a prerequisite to commitment and sustainable progress. The Bahá'í Faith like other religions provides a plethora of visions that are shared among its believers. The vision of the "unity of mankind," binds the believers together towards a common goal. This "global" vision is operationalised through successive plans, each with a more specific vision and purpose.

The third discipline - mental models

Mental models represent one's beliefs, prejudices and assumptions that shape one's worldview. Senge asserts, "Our mental models determine not only how we make sense of the world but how we take action."⁽³⁾ As an indispensable prerequisite for becoming a learning organisation, the mental models of its members must be continually examined, clarified and if necessary modified. In Bahá'í terms, this is analogous to the examination and elimination of all forms of prejudices.

The fourth discipline - dialogue (team learning)

Dialogue or "flow of meaning" is referred to by Senge as the generative/creative conversation. Interestingly, a prominent contributor to the discipline of dialogue is a leading quantum physicist, David Bohm. There are striking parallels between dialogue and the principles of Bahá'í consultation. Foremost among these is "suspension" of judgement. In the dialogue process individual ideas are viewed as "gifts" which are added to a "gift basket" owned by the group. Once a contribution is made it becomes the common property of the group--a core principle of Bahá'í consultation.

The fifth discipline - systems thinking

Systems thinking is the art and science of seeing the whole. A whole (system) is not the sum of its parts (reductionism) but the product of their interactions. It is not seeing the forest alone but seeing the forest together with the trees. Systems thinking also teaches that the world is dynamic and interconnected and that cause and effect are not close in time and space.

Viewed in this light, Bahá'í teachings are essentially systemic in nature. The view of humanity as an indivisible whole is paramount in Bahá'í teachings. Yet individual parts are not subdued for the primacy of the whole. On the contrary, the whole and its constituent parts interact harmoniously in what Ackoff calls a "social system."⁽⁴⁾ A social system not only has a purpose of its own, each part of the system has its own purpose (e.g. spiritual growth) which cannot be achieved independent of the purpose of the whole (i.e. transformation of human society, ever advancing civilisation). This is in contrast to a mechanistic (Newtonian) system or an organic system, in which parts of the system while having individual functions do not have independent purposes (e.g. while the human body has a purpose, the heart or the lungs do not have a purpose of their own).

At the societal level too, Bahá'í teachings are the embodiment of systemic view as they operate in interaction with each other. Stated differently, none of the social teachings of the Faith can singly, and in isolation from other teachings, provide a complete solution on its own. For example, without "independent investigation of truth" and "elimination of prejudices," the goal of "equality of men and women" is unachievable.

Steiner's knowledge management system can be further differentiated from a learning organisation by making a distinction between knowledge and learning. Russell Ackoff, a leading systems scientist, defines a progression from data to information, to knowledge, to understanding, and to wisdom. "Knowledge," he asserts, "consists of know-how, .... knowing how a system works or how to make it work in a desired way."⁽⁵⁾ Understanding, on the other hand, comes from the answer to "why." Wisdom, however, "is the ability to perceive and evaluate the long-term consequences of behaviour. Wisdom normally associated with a willingness to make short-term sacrifices for the sake of long-term gains".⁽⁶⁾ Given this perspective, an organisation requires a lot more than a knowledge acquisition and management system to become a learning organisation. Therefore one can suggest that the Bahá'í community (or any religious system for that matter) can be viewed as a learning organisation, based on its fundamental emphasis on Ackoff's premise of understanding and wisdom, namely, a focus on why and a fundamental belief in the long-term (i.e. the continuity of history in this world, and the progression of life in other worlds).

Despite their distinctions, there is a dynamic link between knowledge and learning. This link is captured in the concept of the "learning community"⁽⁷⁾ - an extension of Learning Organisation. In the Learning Community, three elements of knowledge, practice, and capacity-building interact dynamically toward an ever-advancing whole (i.e. community, society). There is a striking parallel between this concept and Daniel Jordan's "knowledge-volition-action" cycle. Another example of this dynamic cycle is apparent in a recent message of the Universal House of Justice. A close examination of that message in the context of the "institutes" reveals reinforcing dynamics between knowledge (i.e. human resource training and development), practice (i.e. teaching) and capacity building (entry by troops).

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COMMENTARY on Roy Steiner's "The Bahá'í community as a learning organisation"

Commentator: Svenja Tams

In "The Bahá'í community as a learning organisation," Roy Steiner outlines the benefits of a system that manages practical knowledge available in the Bahá'í community. Citing the example of a system which was developed by a consulting firm, he suggests a conceptual design for a knowledge management system.

As I study how organisations learn and make sense of their environment, it was pleasing to see the first article of its kind in The Bahá'í Studies Review. Social science disciplines have so far been rarely applied to the study of the Bahá'í community itself. Steiner's article is refreshing, because it presents a pragmatic approach, grounded in current managerial practice, towards improving the functioning of our community. The author refrains from theorising on a topic on which explicit Bahá'í references are limited. In response to the author's objective of stimulating a discussion on the topic, my intent here is to unpack some of the underlying assumptions presented in the article. To this end I raise more questions than I answer. This will, I hope, contribute to a more comprehensive approach towards developing information environments within the community.

This commentary starts with a discussion on the nature and purpose of social knowledge. Unlike Steiner, I believe that the development of a knowledge system is not foremost a technology or database problem. I propose that the learning within the Bahá'í community is a consultative process rather than the accumulation of past experiences. Such a process perspective, furthermore, enables the community to be proactive and adaptable to unanticipated events.

The concept of knowledge

By referring to the Bahá'í writings, the author emphasizes the importance of knowledge and expertise for the governance of states. But what is Steiner's concept of knowledge? He distinguishes between scholarly and experiential knowledge and focuses on the latter. The challenge of organisations, as argued by the proponents of knowledge management, is to accumulate experiential knowledge and to make it widely available through shared classification systems. By choosing the development of natural sciences as an example, knowledge is defined as an objective thing. This definition is problematic in social organisations which are constructed by self-reflective human beings. As Capra puts it, knowledge has its basis in ideas, not in information.⁽⁸⁾ It can also be contrasted with the proposition by social anthropologist Clifford Geertz, "The shapes of knowledge are ineluctably local, indivisible from their instruments and their encasements."⁽⁹⁾ This view defines knowledge as a relational system that gives meaning to experience. The sense-making process depends on prior knowledge. It is influenced by judgements based on the value system of the culture from which it emerges. Individuals, moreover, hold tacit knowledge⁽¹⁰⁾ which they may not easily express, nor categorise.

The relativism of truth is one of the core principles of the Bahá'í Faith where the authoritative interpretation of the sacred text is only granted to 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi. The Universal House of Justice's powers are limited to the functions of legislation and implementation as well as elucidation of existing law.⁽¹¹⁾ The community does not have a law of precedence or of tradition, such as in Islam or in Judaism. Decision-making in the community is not based on a detailed canon of regulations or routines. It is based on a process of consultation as a means for bringing together a wide variety of viewpoints. The guiding objective is to achieve unity and action toward a goal, not an optimising solution. The social nature of decision-making makes it difficult to separate means from their ends and decisions result more often from comparison of a few feasible alternatives,⁽¹²⁾ rather than from rational choice alone. Communities should still be informed about administrative procedures or benefit from relevant experiences in order to avoid "reinventing the wheel," as Steiner points out. Yet, the fact that the act of classifying and recording knowledge is an act of interpretation. When publishing past experiences, we select the stories we want to tell. Can we only learn from success stories which are highly context and culturally bound? Can a single person or group represent the historical and situational context of experiences adequately? Is it reasonable to expect that a shared knowledge system allows us to learn from past mistakes?

In fact, recent technology development may reduce some of the concerns related to classification. Advanced search engine technology⁽¹³⁾ makes it possible to search vast amounts of information distributed around the globe. The two by two matrix structure sketched by Steiner models the old style of relational databases. At a time when the Internet emerges as the de facto communications infrastructure for public as well as private domains, it is unrealistic that the Bahá'í community would build a proprietary system. Thus, questions about how to centralise retrieval and who should "own" information are outdated. The Internet benefits from local ownership of information and public access where lack of access remains a temporary issue. A pre-defined classification system may limit the creation and sharing of new knowledge.

Notwithstanding, in an age when everyone owning a computer and a telephone line can publish information, the review capacity of Bahá'í institutions would need to grow exponentially which seems unfeasible. The most likely selection mechanism will be a market mechanism regulated by supply and demand and the moral code of conduct accepted at the individual level, i.e. the information publishers and consumers. It will be increasingly difficult for Bahá'í institutions to prevent "low quality" information from being published. The values and selection criteria of potential users will determine the currency of such information. Those publishers who can build up high credibility and reliability of information could be expected to attract a wider audience.

Learning

Steiner's ambitious title describing the Bahá'í community as a learning organisation is misleading as he emphasises the descriptive level of applied technology rather than the dynamics of a learning organisation. Steiner's information processing approach implies that by providing access to a broad scope of high-quality knowledge, learning will happen almost naturally. Peter Senge,⁽¹⁴⁾ who is referenced by the author, emphasises the problems of learning from the past. Past experiences rarely match the needs of future, uncertain decision situations. Senge, hence, suggests that organisations should create room for simulated experimentation in what he calls "microworlds." The space of this commentary is too limited to discuss in detail the benefits and limitations of secured heuristic learning. What Senge brings to our attention, though, is that a holistic learning process should not separate analysis of information from its bodily experience and action.

Moreover, there remains scope for applied Bahá'í scholarship to investigate the benefits and limitations of two distinct learning processes. The first emphasises the stabilisation of action in routines. This type of learning contributes to the consolidation of the community. The second type of learning makes communities more resilient and able to anticipate and adapt to novel conditions. The latter type of learning, only, allows the community to guide future-oriented social development.

As much as learning develops our abilities to understand our world, there is no single way of making sense of reality. Consultation allows us to reveal the differences in perspective. Learning takes place when knowledge appears to be in contradiction, as expressed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá: "The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions."⁽¹⁵⁾

The emphasis in the Bahá'í writings on consultation, "unity in diversity," and individual search for truth shows that there are multiple valid ways of looking at the world and that outcomes will improve the more we become able to reveal these different perspectives. Having a unifying vision does not require convergence on a common culture or single systems of meaning which specifies the one best way of doing things. More important, and central to Bahá'í administration, is a decision-making framework which, in combination with an overarching vision, guides respectful and outcome-oriented interaction.

Foundations for the creation of knowledge

As Steiner points out, there is the need to consolidate and build upon the knowledge that is available within the community. With the ubiquitous acceptance of the Internet the problem is no longer a technological one. The foundation of shared knowledge in the Bahá'í community are authoritative sources, rather than the imitation of past practices by other communities. Experiences are important, but they should serve as a point of reference to stimulate creativity of individuals, not as a source of tradition-based law or of rigid routines. The purpose of such learning is to enable communities to become more proactive and responsive in changing environments.

In conclusion, I join Steiner and hope to stimulate the discussion on how current organisational practices and technologies can best be applied to the development of the Bahá'í community. To prevent the unquestioned transfer of common practice, this discussion should be grounded in the spiritual principles of the Bahá'í teachings. It will benefit from diverse perspectives of Bahá'ís engaged in management practice and social sciences, including economics, sociology, anthropology, technology management, political sciences and education. Such an undertaking offers, moreover, access to Bahá'í studies for more pragmatic-oriented individuals. Learning as a dynamic process needs to facilitate both consolidation of shared meaning as well as questioning and doubt which comes from a variety of views in order to create adaptive and innovative communities.

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Author's response to commentaries on "The Bahá'í community as a learning organisation"

Roy Steiner

It is with great pleasure that I read the commentaries on my article entitled "The Bahá'í community as a learning organisation". Our success as a community will depend to a large degree on how we practice the art of the learning organisation.

After reading both the Tams and Maani commentaries, it was clear to me that the title of my paper was inappropriate and should have been "A tool to assist Bahá'í communities in developing a learning organisation." As Maani points out, the concept of the learning organisation goes far deeper than the knowledge management system that I outlined and has deep philosophical and spiritual implications. The five disciplines he outlines are strong thematic threads within the Bahá'í writings and we would be well served by integrating them deeply into our community and spiritual life. In addition, I fully agree that an organisation requires a lot more than a knowledge management system to become a learning organisation. Wisdom, borne within the process of consultation, is the essential ingredient.

Nevertheless, there is a link between knowledge and learning, and the Bahá'í community would greatly benefit by developing a few considered knowledge management systems. Such systems can never substitute for learning that comes from the consultative process, as Tams points out, but they can be of significant help. I have lived in Bahá'í communities in three different continents and there are many similarities in the problems that these communities face and myriad opportunities for sharing experiences among these communities. In answer to Tams, I think that we can learn from success stories which are highly contextual and culturally bound as long as we recognize these constraints, and a shared knowledge system may enable us to learn from past mistakes.

Let me give a brief explanation of why I believe this. As a managing director of an Internet company in Africa (Africa Online), I am continually reminded of how much benefit could come from access to information and experiences from the rest of the world. For example, a local spiritual assembly here decided to promote children classes but had a difficult time tracking down suitable curricula for all age groups. They eventually had to develop some curricula from scratch, when in fact there were probably hundreds of communities that have already done this. A better use of time would have been to take an already existing curriculum and enhance it to fit the specific requirements of the African students. What I would like to see is a website that collects all curricula that have ever been created for Bahá'í classes. Thus with a suitable search engine, a Bahá'í teacher in Africa could review materials developed in Bolivia, Russia and Canada and choose those that were most appropriate for his or her purpose. This is a very simple example but very relevant to people in the field.

An even more powerful use of the Internet is in developing communities of interest around specific issues. If, for example, the African children's class teacher could not only review curricula from around the world but then also engage in discussion fora that focus on the use of such curricula in different settings, one could stimulate a learning process that would avoid the unquestioned transfer of common practices that Tams finds objectionable.

The explosion of interest in Intranets and the continuing development of technologies that allow diverse and geographically distant organisations to collaborate together cannot be ignored. These technologies should be used by the Bahá'í communities to enhance our capacity to learn and to further the work of the Bahá'í Faith. The beauty of many of these technologies is that they are available to anyone with a computer and the initiative to try something new.

End Notes

1. Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: the Art & Practice of The Learning Organization (London: Random House, 1990).
2. David Bohm cited in Peter M. Senge et al, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (New York: Currency Doubleday, 1994).
3. Senge, Fifth Discipline 175.
4. Russell L. Ackoff, "Systems Thinking and Thinking Systems", INTERACT (June 1993).
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Peter Senge and Daniel Kim, "From Fragmentation to Integration: Building LearningCommunities," The Systems Thinker 8.4 (May 1997).
8. Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life (London: Harper Collins, 1996.) 69-70.
9. Clifford Geertz, Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretative anthropology (New York: Basic Books, 1983).
10. Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1958).
11. Juan R.I. Cole, "Interpretation in the Bahá'í Faith," The Bahá'í Studies Review 5.1 (1995): 1-11. (See also the commentary by Sen McGlinn in this volume, page 84.)
12. C.E. Lindbloom, "The Science of Muddling Through," Public Administration Review 19(1959): 79-88.
13. For example: http://www.altavista.com/, http://www.hotbot.com/,http://www.excite.com/, http://www.infoseek.com/
14. Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: the Art & Practice of The Learning Organization (London:Random House, 1990).
15. Cited in a letter dated 5 March 1922 written by Shoghi Effendi to the Bahá'ís of the UnitedStates and Canada, published in Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932 (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1968) 21.