Replying to LO25734 --
Tzur Karen asked a couple of weeks ago for "some relevant bibliography
[about] organizational-learning models which have bean implemented in the
U.S. military". . .etc. Tzur, you have already received some excellent
responses. Another book I recommend is The Five Pillars of TQM by Bill
Creech, a former US Air Force Four Star General who re-organized the giant
US Tactical Air Command by de-centralizing command, organizing teams, and
applying other TQM principles. He, and this successful initiative, are
often given much of the credit for US success in the Gulf War. (I assume
our gracious host will as usual give us a correct citation and link.)
A personal experience. Over a dozen years ago I was providing training at
an Army base on TQM and on Establishing and Developing Self-Directed Work
Teams. I put a major emphasis on such topics as the importance of team
members' continuous learning and on the strongly supportive leadership
required from above to make this all possible. My participants were all
civilian employees of the Army, except for one uniformed Captain. He said
very litte in most sessions until the final day when he commented that he
agreed with most of what we had covered and that it was "old stuff" for
him, having already been covered intensely in his Army training. I was
torn between personal chagrin that I was teaching him nothing new and
pride in the US Army that they had already provided him that kind of
advanced development.
Mike Brower
Michael Brower Associates
mbrower32@aol.com
--Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.