Doug,
I have thought for some time about your question: How can organizations
learn without requiring learning on the part of the individuals who
comprise the organizaiton?
I like the question for a couple of reasons:
(1) It causes us think about the nature of an organization. What exactly
is it?
(2) It causes us to think about our definition of learning. What does it
mean to learn?
Mike McMaster has done some wonderful work in this area, which, I'm
assuming, you are familiar with. If not you can check out his web site for
more information. The URL is http://www.kbdworld.demon.co.uk/.
An organization is more than the people who comprise it. It is the
language that defines the organization through structure; it is the
patterns of interaction between people within the organization; it is the
information that is available, at any time, to be used to create new
possibilities. A change in any of these elements will cause an
organization to learn, but not necessarily require any one individual to
learn. Indeed, the intelligence embedded in an organization will be
greater than the intelligence of any one individual.
-- Ben Compton bcompton@dws.netLearning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>