Replying to LO29057 --
Dear Organlearners,
>Wonder what this group thinks about the validity of
>Fred's approach and If anyone knows how well or
>not this book is received in the business world and
>the training profession.
>
> http://pf.fastcompany.com/feature/02/fred.html
("Breakaway: Delivering Value to Customers - Fast!" by Charles Fred)
Greetings Gerrit,
I have not seen the book. But I had a look at the site which you
suggested. Here is a number of quotes from that site:
"How can companies dedicate 3% to 5% of their net revenue to training and
still fail to meet the most basic consumer demands? The problem, he finds,
begins in the design phase."
A well designed training course makes sense to me. Actually, i wonder how
any organisation can spend money on training without making sure that it
will get what it wants. But i should not wonder because i know of many
organisations which leaves it up to the trainer what should be done.
Rule 1.
"Before any training begins .... Leaders should set
proficiency goals for departments and then explain how
corporate training will help each department achieve
those objectives."
This also makes sense to me. I wonder how anybody can be satisfied with a
training course without any clear goals and objectives. But i should not
wonder because i know of many organisations in which this aimless training
happens.
Who are the leaders who will have to delineate such proficiency goals? As
a result of specialisation, few above the rank of a departmental head will
be able to do so.
Rule 2.
"Accelerate the accumulation of experience. Fred says
most companies devote a disproportionate amount of
time and money to classroom teaching -- the introduction,
assimilation, and translation of information ...."
It seems that Fred is aware of the difference between knowledge and
information as well as that knowledge begins with experiences.
Rule 3.
"Measure the time it takes employees to master their
learning. In Breakaway, Fred explains how to calculate a
proficiency rate and how to map a proficiency curve that
compares the number of service units required to reach
the proficiency threshold ..."
Proficiency (competancy, fluency, performance -- oh, so many names for one
and the same thing) is vital in completing tasks, even more so when tasks
become interlaced. This points to the essentiality liveness
("becoming-being") of creativity.
Gerrit, I have not seen the book, but the four quotations above give me an
indication of a down-to-earth book.
I also had a look at the resume of Charles Fred at
< http://pf.fastcompany.com/feature/02/fred.html >
and saw the following sentence:
"The theme of his recent book ... centers on a new set of
business rules that help leaders change the way in which
they prepare their workforce to deliver value faster."
I wonder what this "new set of business rules" is. If it is those quoted
above, then it entails that businesses in the US have not made use of them
before. I cannot believe that this is true. Such "sales talk" will not do
the book any good.
I also get the impression that there is some correspondence between Fred's
"speed learning" and the "celeration learning" of Precision Teaching which
Terje Tonsberg recentlly informed us about. It should be nice to hear his
comments.
My overall impression is that the book has the message that any business
which makes learning its first priority, has a competitive advantage. I
could not get hold of any information whether Fred made any connection
between his "speed learning" and the learning organisation.
Such a connection has to be made. It is impossible to speed up the
learning without speeding up the underlying entropy production. This means
that entropic forces and fluxes have to be increased. Increased entropic
forces may easily cause unresolved stresses in the work place while
increased entropic fluxes may easily cause changes too fast to cope with.
The LO will be needed to ensure that "speed learning" does not overstep
the limits of joy.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@postino.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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