Replying to LO26609 --
Anne asks about clues or a LO:
In my work, I perform "diagnostics", a process similar to the due
diligence process. We study financials and perfromance metrics, interview
key members of the organizationa and walk around looking at things. Many
of the clues are found in the interviews and the walking around. The P&L
in an organization which is learning may not be the best because of years
of nonlearning, but the improvements can be seen there by using time
series analysis.
Many of the clues are in the workplace, in the way you find people. The
learning leader will bring in other people to answer questions more
clearly rather than to appear omnipotent, the learning machine operator
will talk to you about training and cooperation with managers, about what
a great person the supervisor is. You'll hear things like "They let me do
what I need to" where, without using the word "empowerment" you find it.
There will be laughter. There will be small groups surrounding a process
and thinking about it, talking about it, and finally, making it better.
There will be evidence of systems thinking, and probably as many questions
as there are answers.
> I am interested in any thoughts about how one might seek or
> identify a Learning Organization from the standpoint of
> merger partner (or acquisition candidate) company. For
> example, if I were evaluating a client's potential merger
> candidate, where would I look to see "clues" of a LO? Given
> a list of potential merger/acquisition candidates, how could
> I assess which, if any, are successful LOs? This moves me
> into a territory where I have been told, "it's not a
> financial issue, it's an "integration" issue, don't worry
> about it until after the deal". But any integration issue is
> eventually a financial issue (it takes resources of some type
> to integrate companies, and I would think LOs would be better
> at this?). It seems worthwhile to evaluate this issue
> earlier rather than later. Ideas or sources are welcome and
> I would share what happens with what I can apply to an actual
> situation.
John
John Zavacki
jzavacki@greenapple.com
--"John Zavacki" <jzavacki@greenapple.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.