> I am involved in trying to resurrect the ability to promote continuous
> learning within a rigid (by heirarchy and mindset) engineering design
> organization. The culture is one of strict adherence to administrative and
> design requirements. Efforts to date to integrate knowledge sharing,
> collaboration, and mentoring have failed because the systems and processes
> do not support change. I'm curious if any of you have examples of positive
> changes with respect to "learning organization" applications within
> similar organizations.
Check out http://sunset.usc.edu/~bkclark/Research/Dissertation.pdf. This
is a PhD dissertation by Bradford Clark entitled "Effects of Software
Process Maturity on Software Development Effort". It's a carefully
researched study of the effects of following one learning methodology,
based on the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model.
Clark focuses on one benefit: the reduction of effort to produce a given
result. I've seen some reports of other benefits derived from this
approach, but I don't have good references.
> I hear a lot of "we're different" and "it won't work here" responses to
> change initiatives.
That certainly sounds familiar; I've heard that litany too many times
before. Unfortunately, the phrase "pushing on a rope" comes to mind here;
if they're in strong denial, you won't get far.
According to the Software Engineering Institute's approach, you need to
have recognition of the need and sponsorship from the top of the
organization to be able to initiate a successful program with enough
"legs" to withstand the usual crises; they call this "unfreezing" (it's
related to At De Lange's notion of moving away from equilibrium toward a
bifurcation). Your best bet may be to look for ways to help start the
unfreezing process.
Good luck and happy hunting,
Don Dwiggins "The truth will make you free,
SEI Information Technology but first it will make you miserable"
dwig@earthlink.net -- Tom DeMarco
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