Henrik Togero of software engineering research center (SERC) in Melbourne,
Australia was looking at problems like "knowledge loss" within the
telecommunication/computer industry.
He suggested that the processes within a company that counteract
"learning" might include turnover of knowledge workers and poor procedures
for knowledge storing, sharing and retrieving.
He touched on two defining parameters of learning within an organisation:
knowledge retention and knowledge accessibility. Perhaps by adding two
more, one could round out the circle of learning parameters to form a
general concept. The factors affecting learning are, in my opinion, as
follows:
Acquisition - Acquisition of learning varies from learning by doing to
learning by example to learning by appreciation.
Retention - The extent to which the learning is retained depends upon the
vessel. To quote a sage, a fresh piece of paper receives the words; a
paper with erasures receives the words less. Thus a fresh approach is
often retained better than a retrial of a worn method.
Accession - As Mr. Togero indicated, the accessibility of organizational
learning is paramount to its use. The knowledge that has been so dearly
acquired is only of potential utility until it is accessed by a user.
Deployment - As many applicants for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality
Award (MBNQA) have learned, the deployment of systematic improvements and
methods of operations is very difficult. Deployment of "lessons learned"
is the primary value added activity of management. The facilitation of
that deployment, the provision of an atmosphere where the deployment of
leaning is encouraged, is the stock and trade of superior organizations.
Stuart Harrow
--"Harrow, Stuart" <bvc2206@dcrb.dla.mil>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>