The Satori System (tm)

Decades ago, I had the opportunity to study with creativity pioneer, E. Paul Torrance. Torrance was widely regarded as an international expert in creativity development in children. At the time when I met Torrance, he was deeply involved in research regarding creativity in the Japanese culture. As I reflect on his teachings, I am aware of two main concepts that have stuck with me through the years.

1) Satori - Torrance introduced us to this Japanese word, which he defined as "a sudden flash of enlightenment." He explained that the United States really had no parallel term that captures the essence of Satori. The closest U.S. word he could offer was really not a word at all, it was the feeling of insight derived from an "ah-ha" experience.

2) Creativity is a Process - The second concept was the notion that creative problem solving is not a random event. It is a form of thinking that is the result of disciplined activity. Creative problem solving is, in fact, a "process that requires practice."

It was not until 10 years later, with the introduction of Deming's quality theories in the U.S., that I began to see connections between Torrance's work and organizational effectiveness. W. Edwards Deming's concept of "Profound Knowledge" seemed amazingly consistent with Torrance's philosophy of creativity. Deming, however, placed greater emphasis on the development of deep understanding of a system. He taught us that this type of Profound Knowledge was essential in order to make meaningful organizational improvements. Torrance and Deming, both of whom had significant involvement with Japanese culture, had arrived at similar, complimentary conclusions, but from radically different disciplines - child development and statistics.

I believe that the most distinctive element of Learning Organizations is the frequency with which Satori occurs within the enterprise. Ask yourself: How often do managers and employees within my organization experience "a sudden flash of enlightenment" that results in significant system innovation? The Satori System provides a means to increase this frequency. To read an example of the application of the Satori System in team-based continuous improvement, visit the Satori System web site.

The purpose of the Satori System web project is to advance understanding of improvement concepts by hosting a collection of related web sites. Currently, the following sites are components of the Satori System project:

Satori System (tm) - satorisystem.com
Leader Ethics - leaderethics.com
Personal Mission Development - personalmissiondevelopment.com
Principled Leadership - principledleadership.com
First Year College - FirstYearCollege.com