<Benefits>

Benefits

We would intrinsically assume that a more knowledgeable society is better placed to meet the future; a future that is going to be complex, fast changing and highly competitive.

Before listing the benefits that will accrue to a learning society might we emphasise that we only 3% of the whole is measurable. Most of the benefits are not quantifiable.

3% of problems have figures, 97% of problems do not”

W Edwards Deming

W Edwards Deming recognised one of the deadly diseases of ‘Western’ management was “running an organisation on visible figures alone”

We should also acknowledge that this goal is long term – the application of scientific method to society as a whole is a 10-20 year vision.

Below we list a view on some of the benefits that would accrue to Scotland under the following headings; use the links as appropriate:

Education
Social Inclusion
Further Education - Universities
The Performance of our Private Organisations
The Public Sector
The Press
In Entrepreneurial Activity
Communities
The Political Climate
The Environment
The Morale and Confidence of the Scottish People
The Alternative

1. Education

Our education system is dominated by our system of measurement – qualifications. As we now know more about how the brain works, how we learn and the variety of each individual, we have an opportunity to move away from “managing by measurable figures alone,” and focus on the needs of the individual and society.

Furthermore, as we cannot predict the knowledge required in 20 years time, our education system is likely to move away from pouring information into students and onto developing skills in context of how to learn.

The benefits that would accrue would be:

A society that has enhanced learning skills that will include holistic, conceptual and social skills
A society that is better equipped for the fast pace of change in the modern world
An increased knowledge based education will counteract the dumbing down of our media and entertainment business.
With an increase in knowledge of the individual comes an increase in confidence and well being.
A confident and well informed society will attract inward investment in the knowledge industries.
We will have a society that has a greater understanding of the complex challenges that will face us in the future. It will therefore be better prepared to accept uncomfortable future strategies.

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2. Social Inclusion

As our education and society will have greater perception of “whole systems” it will recognise that education requires to address the whole child including its environment. From this whole society perspective we would secure:

The appreciation in the child of its place in the whole society.
With the focus on social skills the child will develop skills in relating to other people and society.
And as the young people develops this knowledge and skills they become more confident in themselves and within society
With our education system moving from its focus of providing qualifications and onto the needs of the individual, our education system will become more flexible and less people will drop out.
With less students dropping out of education, more will become employable.
The education system will have the opportunity to move from ‘imposed’ discipline to the development of ‘self’ discipline. With obvious benefits for society and employability.

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3. Further Education – Universities

Our Further education establishment and Universities will have the opportunity to move from the short term focus on qualifications and onto studying the long term needs of society and the students – what does the student need 5, 10, 15 years into their careers?

Also with the encouragement of experiment and risk the Universities can become centres for research and applied learning in context of the Social Sciences

Benefits:

The development of a knowledge base more appropriate to the needs of our organisations – in the long term.
An awareness that organisational thinking – management – is the application of science – science based on theories.
They will have developed students who have the discipline of identifying the basis of their knowledge (their theories) and a willingness to challenge that basis in light of modern research. i.e. the students will have developed sound continual learning disciplines.
A graduate population that will form the foundations of future learning and development of society
Research in the social sciences. Present research is inhibited by the lack of application within the workplaces, the Universities themselves and society. If this was reversed then the door would be opened for enhanced investment in social science research – Scottish Universities could lead the world in this field.

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4. The Performance of our Private Organisations

The exemplar companies that are applying modern concepts are few but highly significant. Toyota being by far the most profitable car manufacturer, W L Gore, a highly innovative company in its field and one that is regularly voted the best company to work for. John Lewis Partnership who consider their shop staff as ‘partners.’ With management reporting to the partners, they have inverted the hierarchical pyramid.

Benefits

An organisational learning culture that is agile in responding to the demands of a fast changing world. It will be aware of the theories that underpin its methods and structures and will be in a position to change those theories in light of modern research
Through the application of systems theory our processes would be more efficient.
Through the use of Statistical Process Control organisations would develop greatly enhanced abilities in interpreting data.
The significant reduction in the "doctoring" of data.
Through the appreciation of intrinsic motivation organisations would be able to capture greater commitment from its employees
Through the development of enabling, as opposed to compliant cultures, the companies would be able to tap into the inherent creativity of its staff
A resulting enhanced morale
A significant reduction in the need for management supervision – hence a reduction in overhead costs
Greater safety in the working environment
Significantly enhanced innovation
All leading to significantly enhanced long term ‘bottom line’ results.

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5. The Public Sector

Due to the public sector’s environment, where it is open to scrutiny by politicians, the electorate and the press, it tends to be pushed into the use of simple ‘command and control’ principles. If the whole of society is better informed then it has the opportunity to open itself out to the creativity of its staff with the risks of being wrong that is so fundamental to learning and moving forward.

As with the commercial sector each unit will develop a dynamic organisational learning culture. It will be open to new concepts and theories
It will cease to be risk averse.
The use of the considerable creativity and innovation of staff and the resulting increase in morale of staff
A significant reduction in the costs of providing public services through the application of modern theories such as system thinking and Statistical Process Control.
A significant reduction of the management supervision overhead for controlling public expenditure
The elimination of a “blame” culture
A reduction of upward delegation and an enhanced willingness of staff to take decisions
The dismantling of the oppressive control from the centre - The Scottish Office
The removal of the negative influence of uninformed press reports
Longer terms contracts so that public servants do not have to spend considerable time securing funding for future months.

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6. The Press

The inherent desire of journalists to portray an approximate truth is undermined by the speed with which they have to provide ‘copy’ and the perceived desire of the public for emotional and sensational stories. The trend, at present, is for the press to be leading the dumbing down process of our society. With a more informed press and public the benefits would be:

As the public are going to have a greater understanding of whole systems they will grow tired of sensational and blame culture stories
A knowledgeable Scottish Society will become more demanding of the media
This will give ‘serious’ journalists more scope.
The project would seek a commitment to represent “truth” from a whole systems perspective from the media

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7. In Entrepreneurial activity

Our present education system, which has major command and control elements, encourages compliance. New education systems can reverse this trend and open out our entrepreneurial potential.

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8. Community

The movement away from “command & control” thinking and structures in education and our organisations will move us away from the “dependency” culture of our society. The benefits that will accrue will be:

The development of greater individual confidence – see above
Individuals taking greater responsibility for the continued development of our society
The seeing of our place in the community and our responsibility within the community
The further development of “volunteer” working in communities
As there would be a greater identity with society and the community as a whole the knock on effect would be a reduction in crime and at the same time an increase in the gathering of information to solve crimes. – A reduction in the prison population

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9. The Political Climate

Modern social science recognises the complexity of organisations and society and the resulting need for interdependence and cooperation. This Learning Society initiative would therefore:

Move political competition away from the acceptance of “Ya-Boo” political norm and onto appreciating open and informed dialogue from our politicians.

It would enable our politicians to lead the development of a learning society
It would inform politicians
It would significantly improve the conversations between Politicians and The Executive
It would also enhance the conversations between the Politicians and the electorate and the media
It would enable the politicians and society to be much more demanding of the Scottish Executive.
It would open the door for our MSPs to represent and lead Scotland rather than be bogged down appearing to manage the country and approving legislation

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10. The Environment

The environment is a complex whole systems issue. Society’s appreciation of this would enable:

Governments to make much more unpopular long term decisions
Allow the channeling of funding into long term environmental projects
Increase re-cycling by consideration of recycling as a whole
Encourage society to move from its “throw away” mindset.
Allow the population to take a much more responsible ‘world view’ on such aspects as ensuring that farmers in third world countries receive a return that takes them out of the poverty level. i.e. an expansion of the concepts such as the “Fair Trade” agreements.

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11. The morale and confidence of the Scottish people

The movement away from command and control styles of management and into a more trusting and enabling environment enhances the worth of the individual
Individual worth is further enhanced when our organisations recognise the need to capture our creativity.
More openness and less fear when we move away from such concepts as accountability and blame
A trusting and enabling environment places more responsibility on the individual.
To quote Hertzberg “ we do not resist change we resist being changed” – If we are part of the thinking process that produces change we will be more comfortable with continual change
When we have knowledge, a vision with which we can identify, and are an integral part of the change process then our confidence and belief in ourselves will be sky high.

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12. The Alternative

The alternative to confidently applying the knowledge in social sciences that is available to Scotland is for us to continue being dependant on other nations for support and for us to slip into a backwater of the modern world. A continuing dependency culture will eat into our self confidence and undermine the cohesion of our society.

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