Intro -- Julian Elve LO13163

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Julian_Elv=E9?= (julian.elve@bbc.co.uk)
Wed, 9 Apr 1997 18:01:51 +0100

Hi all,

I've been lurking on and off on this list for a few months, but I guess
the time is right to show my colours!

I work for the BBC, within an internal resources business unit that is
going through major change. My interest in the LO skills has been growing
over the last year, particularly as a result of some development work that
a small group of us started last summer.

The group consists of people who manage capital projects - work which
results in the installation or change of technical facilities used for the
editing and post-production of TV programmes. Defining these projects
often surfaces conflicting expectations and world-views from business
sponsors, sales people, customers, the craft people who use the facilities
and the engineers who maintain them. The development work came out of a
strong group feeling that the secret to getting better solutions quicker
was to find new ways of working with other people.

With some external help we have started to explore the power of dialogue,
skillful discussion and improved listening skills. The results so far have
been some comments about a changed approach from our clients and a
radically changed feeling within the group, both of which have re-inforced
our will to keep practicing!

I have now moved on to other work within the same department, as a member
of the project team leading a major organisational change. The need for me
to use these skills is even more apparent in this role.

The issues which I find particularly challenging at present are:

a) how to use these skills with people who have not gone through the same
development process, particularly as I am still at the conscious
incompetence/conscious competence point

b) the dilemma when working with other people that it seems wrong and/or
counter-productive to co-erce them to recognise a need for change but it
feels that they will never get there without a push...

c) resisting the well-programmed biases to "jump in and do something"
when under time pressure

d) how to explain what "this" is to people who haven't gone through the
same work

I had the good fortune yesterday to meet some of the UK contributors to
this list at a meeting of LiLo (Learning Individuals In Learning
Organisations). It was the strong feeling of "I am not alone" that came
out of that which prompts me to de-lurk, so thanks to all of you I met
then!

-- 
Julian Elve, BBC Post Production & Graphic Design 
(my opinions, not official BBC policy)
Email: julian.elve@bbc.co.uk

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>