NOTE: I receive a lot of general inquiries in my personal email. I try to
answer, and I often post my answers here on the LO list. ..Rick
I was asked:
>6) What can you suggest to grads trying to find a company that has adopted
>aspects of a learning organization?
Ask a lot of questions.
Ask people, what do you want to create? Why are you here? If they look
puzzled, then it's not a learning organization, at least not right there
in that part of the org.
Ask about alignment. Ask what is the shared sense of purpose. It's tricky
to get at the collective aspect; people will lie and say, "Sure, we work
well as a team." You have to get beneath the veneer.
In a healthy learning organization, there's conflict... If there are no
differences in views, then people are in compliance. Org Learning flows
from really caring about things; generally this will produce some
conflict. You'll want to see what is the tone of the conflict and whether
it produces progress.
You might ask about the last time the org changed it's mind.
Learning starts with personal aspiration and a sense of purpose. A
Learning Organization starts with collective aspiration and a sense of
purpose. Everything else follows.
-=- Rick
--Richard Karash ("Rick") | <http://world.std.com/~rkarash> Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer | mailto:Richard@Karash.com "Towards learning organizations" | Host for Learning-Org Discussion (617)227-0106, fax (617)523-3839 | <http://www.learning-org.com>
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