introduction

[Auger Pascale]

My name is Pascale Auger and I am an author and professor in the area of creativity and complexity. I was a human resources manager for 10 years and am currently working for kedge Business School.
Since 4 years I developed an e-learning course in the areas of complexity and management. This calls is attended by 900 students a year and is a great success for students. The characteristic of this success is due to the ability of the class to raise consciousness, the experiment positivist and constructivist mindset and to develop new understanding of management and economy.

Just let me share with you the story of the class
It's the story of two persons who do not know each other, two men who
live in such different worlds that they cannot even imagine their
mutual existence. In their universe, each is confronted to different
realities, to different ways to understand the world, to define
oneself and to act and to decide.

More than anything, our first man likes to move straight ahead, with a
clear view.He likes to choose his destination and to know when,
precisely, he will reach it, what route he will take, what the
conditions will be and in what exact way he will get there. In his
world, going forward, deciding, acting is decided beforehand. It's a
well planned and precisely conceived choice. And that needs a lot of
expertise, reflexion, work and commitment. And even, when we think
about it, it's a real humain challenge the one to be able to define
such a route and follow it exactly according to one's first choices,
whatever the conditions, the world beeing so changing.

This way of doing and analyzing things make me think of trains, the
way they cross the landscapes and the world around them. On a train,
the path is drawn, the rails follow a line, a shape, a chosen
direction. Everything has been conceived with such ingenuity and
incredible expertise... To imagine every curve, all these moments when
it has been necessary to conceive a way to avoid a rock, pass trough a
moutain, over a river... It took so long to do all that, all this
questions to answer to define the very best route, the slope, the
curves, the detours, the straight lines, and all this getting around
the landscapes.

On a train, time is also defined, and how many technical exploits have
been necessary for the machine to ride on a regular speed, to leave
and arrive on the promised hour...Everything needs to be counted,
controled, and predicted... A technical issue or a human problem is
not an option. There must be two drivers, and even an automatic
procedure.

From an inside point of view, the world scrolls before us, as if we
were not part of it anymore. When we think about it, I don't know,
when you think about your last train journey, how was it? Were you
listening to music, were you watching a movie on your touchpad, may be
were you in your thoughts, watching the landscape scrolling. Just as
if watching things scrolling in front of us without really beeing
part of them.

And, the driver is a constant man. After years of driving his trains
he grew older and the paths have not changed him much. His entire
life, he tasted the pleasure of controling his decisions and his
actions, regardless of the surrounding environment, the pleasure to
ensure that each journey would go totally as expected.

In that way, it's so much different from our other guy.

For our second man, what really matters is to travel. What he loves
most is to be at one with the world around him, to let himself be
surprised by the inconstancy of events. He decides, goes forward, acts
according to his principles, those beeing very different from our
first man's. For him, what matters is, of course, the final
destination, but he loves just as much and sometimes even more the
journey to get there. A bit like a sailor who travels the world and
the seas.

The idea to puzzle out and controle his surounding environment is long
gone. The sea cannot be calculated, neither the wind and a boat on it.
The sea can only be loved. And, as he would say "on a boat, no truth
can be true very long and only counts the passion of navigating in all
weather."
Our sailor knows where he wants to go, that's for sure! But his route
is often questionned, calculated and calculated again during the
journey. Sometimes, a distance is traveled quickly. Sometimes, it's
extremely calm, there is no progress, everything seems to stagnate.
And... There are the unexpected uncounters, when, on the high seas,
two paths cross and an old adventurers meets another one. No
comment .

Our man is in direct contact with the rain, sea sprays. When it's
cold, he is cold. He does not watch the landscapes scrolling from the
inside, he is the landscape. May be have you heard interviews of these
great sailors, some will tell you that they are at one with the sea,
that it's an intimate relationship between them and the ocean. Some
other men and women talk about their intimate relationship with the
world around them... I wonder if you say that to yourself sometimes
and how you do it.


After each long trip, our man is not the same any more. His knowledge
of the sea, of his boat, goes deeper. Younger, he took unnecessary but
so exciting risks. With time his travels gradually built and
transformed him. His face has been marked by the sun and the winds,
his voice has changed and his speech is different... Let's imagine two
pictures, one of a young sailor and another one of the same guy after
hundreds of trips... What differences do you see on their faces? I
don't know for you, but I have the feeling it is not the same man.

Well, when I think about all of this, I have a lot of admiration for
what men can do. And I have a question.

In this wold of ours today, this world that keeps evolving, what is
the best to learn at school... To go forward or to travel? I mean...
Is putting our kids on rails the best way to have them reach the good
destination?

What about you, what do you want for yourself?

For me, as you might have noticed, after ten years of experience in
companies, a PHD in creativity, years of sporting passions and
travels, a new passion for neurosciences... I have long left the
rails... So, if you derail sometimes in this class, that's normal,
that means you are leaving the rails... Who knows what you will
perceive on the horizon.

Pascale Auger




Pascale Auger
Professeur associé, management de la créativité, théories de la complexité appliquées au management
06 34 68 43 99
Domaine de Luminy BP 921
13288 Marseille Cedex 9 – France
kedgebs.com<http://kedgebs.com><http://kedgebs.com> // @kedgebs
http://www.facebook.com/kedgebs


Pascale Auger
Professeur associé, management de la créativité, théories de la complexité appliquées au management
06 34 68 43 99
Domaine de Luminy BP 921
13288 Marseille Cedex 9 – France
kedgebs.com // @kedgebs
http://www.facebook.com/kedgebs

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