Stepping Higher - Reflections on the Knowledge Age

Now this is going to be a rather exotic post! Last Sunday I visited a friend of mine who is working as a pastor. It was my first Sunday service within almost a full year, and after the event we engaged into a discussion about the cultural change that is happening in faith-based communities. Apparently there is a movement in christian communites which tries to adapt spiritual life to a postmodern reality and that shows stunning links to the discussion about the knowledge age. To one extent, the movement called " Emerging Church " or "Emerging Conversation" emphasizes the importance of decentralized networks and social communities for church life, promoting flat hirarchies, an inclusive participation of laymen and innovative ideas in spiritual service and teaching. On a second glance, however, the cultural change goes much deeper. The approach not only tries to communicate a well-known message in new forms, it acknowledges that spirituality and faith itself are changi...

Sometimes it's important to remind ourselves that Web 2.0 is indeed just an expression of a deeper paradigm shift that is happening: the transition from a modern to a post-modern society or - in business terms - from the industrial economy to the knowledge economy. With regard to organizational development, this shift is characterized by the transition from authoritative decisions to team work from hirarchies to flat organizational structures from an infrastructure focus to a focus on people from a chain of command to a culture which gives space to creativity & innovation from tightly controlled to widespread information from one lifetime job to multiple careers (with a loss of job security) from specialized skills to multi-tasking from external inscentives to intrinsic motivation (Kotler 2002) The web becomes the symbol of this change from centralized institutions to social networks...