Keith Cowan writes:
> Now can we define the competencies of a learning org and what measures
> would indicate progress from one level to the next???
Take a look at the Software Engineering Institute's Process Program
(http://www.sei.cmu.edu/organization/programs/sepm/process.html ).
They've tried to answer the question for a particular kind of LO, a
software development organization, by defining a 5 level "Capability
Maturity Model" (CMM) for software production (devotees of Deming and
Crosby will recognize this; Watts Humphrey, who masterminded the Process
Program, used their work extensively). Many software organizations have
successfully used this model as a basis to improve their practice (and
many have tried and failed, either from trying to follow the letter
without understanding the spirit, or from trying to be a mature island in
a sea of immaturity).
The success of the Software CMM has led to other maturity models being
defined; some of them can also be found at the SEI site (in particular, HR
and OD folks will find the "People CMM" of interest.)
I'd be interested to see a review of one of these models from the LO
perspective, or of the CMM idea in general.
--Don Dwiggins "All models are false, SEI Information Technology but some are useful" d.l.dwiggins@computer.org -- George Box, "Statistics for Experiments"
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