I am wondering whether viewers of the list could help me with a live issue
for me, which may also be a practical issue encountered by others in the
field of learning organisations. The issue is how to raise questions in a
way that does not create the feeling that we are waisting time asking
questions!
I have recently run a meeting with a group of managers and external
marketing service providers to identify the current and future brand
values of a 200 year old ceramic backstamp/brand. The objective was to
set the agenda for the strategy of the brand and as a team
building/learning exercise intended to share our knowledge and perception
about the current position of the brand at its market environment.
The format I chose was a mix of quantitative charts on sales etc and sets
of questions covering product, pricing, marketing communication etc. The
problem I encountered was an unwillingness and uneasyness about raising so
many questions, and a desire to cut to the chase and "get to some action".
This pressure was principally led by my new boss!
I had thought that the questions I raised would help open up discussion
and allow an exploration of the issues and choices we needed to make in
developing the stategy. Instead all I got was the pressure to close down
the options. It was as if questioning was not valued?
I suppose the question I am asking is how to get peple not to just do
something but to stand there! Is there an unseen dynamic at play that one
can interrupt? e.g
More unanswered questions->More uncertainty->more uneasyness-> more
pressure for action to reduce uncertainty->less time asking questions->
less learning
I thought others may have encountered this kind of thing, since asking
questions is the key to learning. Maybe the issue is finding the best way
and mode to do so in the circumstances. Any thoughts,
guidelines,experience approaches?
Martin
PS Is there any short hand written form that can be used on the list to
describe casual loop dynamics. It seems to me a shame we can not use this
in the list?
[Host's Note: Yes, it would be desirable to reference graphics, including
loop diagrams. Some brave souls have tried to draw them with the keyboard
characters. I include fragments (e.g. Use of Graphics --> Understanding).
You can fax me a small diagram, half page is just about right, fine mode,
to 617-523-3839 and then wait to hear from me. Or attach .jpg or .gif to
and I'll put it on our server. At present, I do not distributed attached
files with msgs. ...Rick]
--Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>