Replying to general discussion summarized by:
>I sense in this discussion a tendency to equate "service" jobs with
>MacDonalds and Taco making. The implication being that "real" jobs are
>about technology and production.
I've been out of touch for a bit and read this thread with interest
because many of us in the local government sector very much consider
ourselves the service industry. At least I can speak for the local
government market, although I'm sure a number of you out there have
probably had less than positive experiences. We are very interested in
learning and I can state the from a fairly global perspective (at least
US) having just returned from a conference where one of the threads of
discussions amoung various local governments (cities) was learning. We
are continuing to do work in this area following this conference. We
believe this is one of the keys to reconnecting with our citizens.
One of the pressures impacting learning in our "service industry" is the
lack of time. Our employees are always working with customers and don't
see that they have much time for "learning" as they view it. We do
however, learn from our customers. We don't have much time to set aside
for classroom learning or the funds. I suspect that these are some of the
same issues facing a MCDonald's or any other service business. Your focus
is on service and not on "learning." To me, in order to incorporate
learning we must integrate it with how we talk to and serve our customers.
Still thinking a lot about what that looks like and how to do it.
Debbie
-- Debbie Broome e-mail: debbieb@linux.plano.gov Assistant City Manager phone: 972-461-7465 City of Plano Texas fax: 972-423-9587 P.O. Box 860358 Plano, TX 75086-0358Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>