1 ODL COMMUNIQUÉ 12, 5 MAY 2010 AN OVERVIEW OF THIS WEEK’S COMMUNIQUÉ 1. New realities, old maps? 2. An overview of the proposals of the different ODL Task Teams 3. Next steps 4. Commenting on the ODL Communiqués 1 NEW REALITIES, OLD MAPS? Margaret Wheatley in her book “Leadership and the new science” (2006), reflects on the maps of antiquity that were incomplete and, at times, completely wrong. Yet, the incompleteness of the maps did not prevent adventurers and explorers to venture out into unknown territories, often with dire and unexpected results. While present- day adventurers and travellers no longer use these antique maps for travelling or exploration purposes, organisations often use obsolete maps of reality and get stuck in outdated ways of thinking and being. “It’s time to realize that we will never cope with this new world using old maps. It is our fundamental way of interpreting the world – our worldview – that must change … The more we rely on them, the more disoriented we become” (2006: x-xi). Due to the uncertainties of letting go of what we know, and the uncertainty of what we don’t know, it is very easy to look for maps that were produced in different contexts than our own. Wheatley (2006:8-9) writes “... I don’t believe that organisations are ever changed by imposing a model developed elsewhere… In every organisation, we need to look internally, to see one another as the critical resources on this voyage of discovery…” She warns that we “rely on habit, rather than creating new responses” (2006: xi). The different ODL Task teams were faced with taking our present context seriously. This context looks vastly different from the context in which the first admission criteria were phrased, assessment practices were established, a three-year cycle for the development of curricula and study material was designed, student support was considered to be optional and the issue of student success and retention was at times a peripheral concern. In our present day context we “need the courage to let go of the old world, to relinquish most of what we have cherished, to abandon our interpretations about what does and doesn’t work… (Wheatley 2006:7). Watch this space…