Audit of a Learning Organisation LO27550

From: Malcolm Burson (mburson@mint.net)
Date: 11/15/01

Replying to LO27483 --

On Tuesday, November 13, David Mather DAVEKMATHER@bigpond.com wrote to me
off-list

>I believe if a Learning Organisation exists, then it can be measured. The
> problem as I see it is the characteristics of a LO are basically
> qualitative, and therefore can be open to interpretation and quantify. The
> quantitative measures, which can comprise the characteristics, such as
> meetings, training, exchange of information etc, while being components of
> the characteristics of a LO as described by Senge, Flood, Pedler &Co, and
> Dixon to name a few, do not necessarily mean that the organisation is a LO.

I would certainly agree with the latter. Measuring these components would
be to quantify outputs, not outcomes, and thus would provide few clues to
the actual assessment of learning.

> The fundamental problem as I see it, is that there is not a standard
> definition, which comprises a universally accepted set of quantitative
> measures. Therefore a major problem is proving that the elements, which make
> up the characteristics and can be measured, actually measure what they are
> designed to.

To David and others, I'd say this: I've never been convinced that the
determination of a "standard definition" of a LO would be either useful or
desirable. To paraphrase what Rick our moderator has so often asserted,
the true test of learning is that whatever is learned is both
behaviorable, and behaved: that is, it results in action. To me, such
action will almost of necessity "look" different when organizations, or
even individuals within them, are compared. Trying to reduce the glory of
new learning, newly applied, to a standard definition whereby some
observable behaviors make the grade of an LO, and others don't, seems to
me almost unbearably reductionist.

So, call me a hopeless romantic if you will. I'll listen, but you've got
some distance to go to convince me that standardization in this
circumstance adds value to our work.

Malcolm Burson
Director of Special Projects
Maine Department of Environmental Protection 

-- 

mburson@mint.net

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