My experience in learning organizations, knowledge management, and
training in general has been on a steep uphill climb over the past 5
years. I am a member of the US Air Force and have 22 years of service.
My past few projects have involved designing a training architecture to
fill training and education gaps, and establishing an operations training
branch to service over 2000 people. I just completed my tenure on a team
that is reengineering a national-level school that serves military and
civilian personnel worldwide. My objective was to integrate all military
services into the new design processes at the greatest extent possible.
My current project, and why I'm soliciting assistance from this dialogue,
is to determine the feasibility of establishing a Chief Learning Officer
position at my installation.
Currently, my installation has four training and education organizations
split under two commands. They consist of professional military education
(non-career field specific), group training (skill level and career field
specific), operations training (orientation, periodic maintenance, and
on-the-job training), and an education center (off-duty, college). My
proposal is to develop a training architecture that encompasses all
education and training facets, and performs as a learning organization.
My research thus far has included assistance from my organization's
Knowledge Management Practice Center, documents from the American Society
for Training and Development (ASTD) and the Corporate Leadership Council,
and reports authored by Tom Davenport, Larry Willets, and Rebecca Barclay.
I'm also reading books by Peter Senge, Kevin Freiberg, and Thomas Stewart.
By November 7th, I must provide the following: a training and education
team matrix (architecture), training organization gap analysis, and a plan
of action. I'm attempting to formulate many of your discussions into a
dialogue representative of military culture. Two examples I've obtained
in only the past couple of days include knowledge loss and unlearning.
However, my challenge as I see it thus far, is the military hierarchy--how
do I convince it to become a partner?
I look forward to the dialogue within this organization, and any
assistance you may have to offer.
Bill Hancy
obfusc8@erols.com
--"William T. Hancy" <obfusc8@erols.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>