Edwin E. Bobrow wrote:
> Could you send me your thoughts on how you, professionally, keep current
> and how do you suggest others do so.
Ed, - I'm grateful for this question. I've been mostly listening on this
list for almost 2 years now, and want to express my appreciation for the
level of dialogue and the knowledge shared here. This list is my first
source for keeping current. Here I find references to current and
enduring literature on the topics that interest me: - in particular -
leadership in times of evolutionary and revolutionary organizational
change. Here I'm also privileged to witness the personal and professional
struggles of those who seek to serve various work
communities/organizations.
I live in Yellowknife, NWT, Canada - 1 1/2 hours by air from the nearest
city and this might be considered restrictive in terms of opportunities
for refreshing/learning.
One of my northern colleagues recently noted, however, that we live in one
of the world's best laboratories for organizational change. This
territory will split in '99 to form a western territory and the new
territory of Nunavut - new/restored home of Canada's Inuit. At the same
time responsibility for most services is devolving to the many small
communities, scattered over this huge land mass....so we watch and
participate and learn - because this is current and alive.
A third way that I keep current - I regularly meet with a small group of
others - consultants, leaders in various organizations - to dialogue about
our learning, our experience and our challenges.
I worked for 15 years for the telephone company here in Canada's north and
have been consulting now for just about a year. One of my recent thoughts
about keeping current is that it might be helpful to alternate a few years
consulting with a few years working in an organization. I'm beginning to
think that would provide me with some balance between observing/reflecting
and participating/reflecting.
Regards,
Sue Starr
--Sue Starr <starr@internorth.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>