Replying to LO24015 --
Interesting post.
On 21 Feb 00, at 11:34, Richard Karash wrote:
> When people resist LO, it seems to me it is with one of these lines
> of thinking:
>
> 1. (Don't trust the means) The goals are right, but I don't like the
> means (reflection, capacity building, dialogue, addressing mental models,
> teaming skills). I don't believe in the means, they feel too soft to me.
> To reach the goals let's just work harder and smarter. (Other approach) I
> prefer _____ (some other approach to improvement).
I happen to believe in the means. However, some of the things said by
those enamoured of the LO don't "sell" well. It's much like Deming
followers, who forget they must get buy-in in real world language with
real people. If that can't be achieved, there's a problem, or perhaps two.
Either the WAY LO folks communicate puts off most normal human beings, or
people buy into it, believe they know how to make it happen, and fail
miserably. In both cases LO's get a bad rap as a concept. > > 2.
(Misunderstanding the goals) Learning? Wait a minute... This >
organization is all about performance, not about some academic or >
self-indulgent support of learning.
Both Deming folowers and LO followers have an affinity for philosophy. The
underlying work involves that discipline. But it cripples communication if
that's as far as it goes. It BECOMES self- indulging, and it doesn't have
to be that way.
> 5. (Avante Garde, fad followers) Learning organization? Isn't that the
> old stuff that Senge was writing about a decade ago? Are people still
> talking about THAT? Have you heard about the latest ________ from
> ________? I want to be using the latest and greatest methods; I've going
> to give that a try. I want to be ahead of the pack, not behind the curve!
...grin... Actually that's a plus. If people talk Senge's work and speak
of it in indecipherable ways it presents a mystique which helps the ideas
continue to exist (but not succeed).
I like LO concepts. that's why I pop in here. As with Deming, the problem
isn't completely in the ideas, but in the followers who are living in a
kind of self-created illusion, largely disconnected from the experiences
of the people they need too "pull in" to bring life and vitality to the
ideas.
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