I agree with Ian Saunders view on the issue of whether or not an
organisation is an LO-
>In my view it is never ending journey. You cannot get there by definition.
>Some organisations may be nearer than others by the things that they do
>and they should still be trying to improve.
>
>If organisations think they got there I suspect they may be seeing it as a
>badge not as a continual search for improvement.
Personally, I think there are better, more profitable questions to ask
than are we an LO, or is so and so company a LO? etc etc
For example:
-does our culture support learning and reflection?
-do all of our policies and processes work together to support people's
growth and learning?
-do managers and leaders walk the learning talk? (Is it OK to sit and
reflect or should I always be seen running around at 100km per hour being
busy?)
-is our whole approach to people matters sustainable? (cf Senge's latest
book)
-is our learning strategic? Does it help us get to where we want to go
(purpose) in the way we want to go there (ie within our value-set)?
-do we achieve a balance between individual, team and organisational
learning?
-do we recognise different kinds of learning and the fact people learn in
different ways?
-is it OK around here to say, "I don't know" or "I don't understand?"
Laurie Field one of my Australian colleagues who has written and
researched around the learning organisation movement prefers to think of
promoting "organisational learning", which connotes sets of policies,
processes and actions, rather than becoming a "learning organisation"
which at best is an abstraction, and at worst an unattainable ideal.
Remember the death of the "quality organisation"...
Philip
Philip Pogson
Leadership Development Strategy Consultant
Staff Development Branch
University of Technology Sydney NSW 2007
Australia
ph: +61 2 9514 2934(w)
fax: +61 2 9514 2930(w)
ph/fax: +61 2 9809 5185 (h)
mobile: +61 0412 459156
"The new heresy for the organisational renewal movement to espouse is that
when we build organisations that act upon this world we must not do so
with the intent to exploit, pollute and plunder but to renew the life of
the planet and ourselves."
-Dexter Dunphy
--Philip Pogson <ppogson@uts.EDU.AU>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>