Richard Karash wrote:
> Bill O'Brien, retired CEO of Hanover Insurance Company, opened the
> conference here with a short evening talk.
>
> To launch our two day conference on assessment, Bill discussed nine
> frustrations. Here are my notes (approximate quotes) of Bill's remarks:
>
> 1. Too much fog in seeing business performance against the ebbs and tides
> of the business cycle.
> 2. We need better lighting to see the lag times between cause and effect.
> 3. It's a war between short-term and long-term.
> 4. Is it a lack of knowledge? Or inadequate practice of virtue?
> 5. Self-scoring is more temptation than management can handle.
> 6. Corporate "leanness" is very difficult.
> 7. Everyone wants to quantify everything.
> 8. One of the most important things I did was avoid fads.
> 9. We need to encourage a "legacy mentality" at the top.
As i summarize them, i noted time plays an important role, time-relations
and feelings, values, vitue and attitudes. So based on these remarks, i
would conclude that Bill wants to change policies, implement values into
rules and/or try to convert people. I suppose he is a great mediator, able
to address rights and interests. It seems to me a right fit with an
insurance company.
On the issue of the assessment of organisational learning, as seen as
trying to connect personal abilities with task requirements, team
abilities with organisational requirements, a kind of resistance starts
building-up, quite naturally, as he might feel that this could mean
working as a social activist, a story teller or a tradesman to find new
solutions and ideas. I see it as a clear example of how your prefered
learning style and your position (and everybody is in a position) shapes
your culture.
> After Bill's talk, Tom Johnson related a Deming story... "In any
> organization, 97% cannot be measured, 3% is measured. But, people are
> spending 97% of their time on the things that are measured." Measurement
> is putting our attention on what doesn't matter.
A clear example of somebody who wants new "games", new ways or organizing
and learning to emerge: supplying data in order to get you to solve your
own problem, your own problem definition, your own perception. This
overshoots the assessment of organisational learning, as it opens up paths
to new behaviour, without paying respect to costs and times. In my view it
reframes the problem: where are we talking about?
> Comments? Follow-ups to any of these points? What does all this have to do
> with assessment of organizational learning?
>
So, as you Americans say, my five cents.
Take five.
Jan Lelie
-- Drs J.C. Lelie CPIM (Jan) janlelie@wxs.nl LOGISENS - Sparring Partner in Logistical Development - + (31) 70 3243475 Fax: idem GSM: + (31) 654685114Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>