Since I am reading Senge's "Presence" right now, I was also taken with the discussion of how modern classrooms were set up to model assembly line environments, with a predetermined plan, and bells and whistles marking time, and tests and plans to keep things moving like one giant assembly line throughout each hour, day, and year.

As a facilitator and learning practitioner, I asked myself what kind of an environment I could set up for learners that modelled more the work environment that we have currently. Then I noticed, most of our work is done at individual desks (in cubicles), or in meetings where people sit in the same kind of sterile rooms (Has Ray Sims painted his office his deep creative red yet?) at mass produced tables and uniform chairs.

The nature of our work has changed, but a positive feedback loop has been set up here that is resisting significant change in our workplace environments. We have created our new, non-industrial work environments to match our education system, which was initially created to match our industrial workplace. And if people need to learn differently today, and work differently, how can both of these environments change structurally?

We are thinking about this in our organization now, and pitching a new Learning Centre for a new building, we will be taking all of this into consideration. Let's hope that an institutional immune system (one that potentially rejects change) does not react against it!