LO Colleagues -
At de Lange asks, in LO 20036: "What is the relationship between
creativity and learning?"
A "big AHA" on this matter came for me from careful reading of David A.
Garvin's article in HBR: "Building a learning organization." Harvard
Business Review, July-August, 1993, pages 78-91.
Professor Garvin presents sensible, actionable guidelines, e.g.
"continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning...ideas are the
trigger for organizational improvement (pages 78, 80). "A learning
organization is...skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring
knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and
insights...new ideas are essential if learning is to take place" (page
80). Proposes practical standards of "meaning, management, and
measurement" (pages 78-79). Illustrates them with Xerox's problem-solving
process, incentive systems to encourage risk-taking and knowledge
transfer, "enthusiastic borrowing," openness to criticism, improvement of
listening skills, performance tracking and learning forums that help all
stakeholders "...wrestle with new knowledge and consider its implications
(page 91)."
My take on Garvin's writing is that "creativity, i.e. having and
presenting ideas, depends on and results from learning." We have ideas
when there is some need to have something different from what it is now (a
"curiousity, an itch, a feeling of dissatisfaction"), and we have some
information or knowledge that enables us to create a new set of
arrangements -- an "idea."
I have found this useful for linking learning values and practices, which
many managers see as of no special value (e.g "that's the training
department's job") with ideas programs.
What is your experience with these points and relationships: Garvin's
points linking learning and ideas (the product or output of creativity or
innovation), others? Have you found other LO writers that make this
useful connection between learning and ideas for improvement?
Thank you for sharing your learning,
Dick Webster
Richard S. Webster, Ph.D. - President
Personal Resources Management Institute
709 Wesley Court - Worthington OH 43085-3558
e-mail <webster.1@osu.edu>, fax 614-433-71-88, tel 614-433-7144
***
PRMI is a 501(c)3 non-profit research, development and consulting company
founded in 1978. The Institute's R&D projects address the paradigm shift
from "training, instruction, and teaching" to "learning" -- a key change
for creating outstanding companies (and other organizations) with improved
leadership, use of information and knowledge, ideas, processes, and
quality; improved capabilities, performance, and productivity of company
members and their teams; with improvements in the "bottom-line" and other
desired results.
***
Thought: "Things are getting better and better and worse and worse faster
and faster" says Tom Atlee. Challenges: (1) Finding and building on the
"betters," in time. (2) Learning--each person's responsibility and
opportunity.
--"Richard S. Webster" <webster.1@osu.edu>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>