Greeting from Sarawak, Malaysia.
An interesting question:
"How do you help sustain interest in learning in your organization?"
Just like many other similar questions like:
"How do you sustain interest in TQM?" when TQM was launched.
"How do you sustain interest in ISO 9000" when the organisation was
accredited.
etc. etc.
My recent observation is a organisation asks themselves
"How do you sustain interest in Teamwork" after much investment in teambuilding.
(Refer http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5621/teamlearning.html),
and I see a common pattern of difficulties and vicious circle.
First I see problem in the question posed, and the meaning taken by the
recipient.
"How do you SUSTAIN INTEREST ..." implying there is an interest initially.
But such interest in most cases, are merely concepts and broad ideas, or
theories or philosophy. And each person (who seems to be interested) has
his or own her perception of that "interest" or concept. Such "interest"
is certainly not Shared Vision that can lead or cause concerned members to
take effective action collectively.
Now the question posed is "How do you SUSTAIN such interest?". It is like
questioning " How do you sustain or maintain non-connnected "parts" i.e.
non-shared vision, or different personal perception / understanding,
assuming there is a Whole, which of course is non-existing". Rather in the
first place, do we really want to sustain "parts", "separateness",
"fragmentation", .... Are we not in the business of synthesizing Whole?
The second problem I see as follow:
"How do YOU sustain interest ....?" Majority of the recipient takes the
question to mean "How should OTHERS pursue interest in .. such and such
topic..?" and start to give recipe, methodology or complaints,
suggestions, etc. of how things could be better managed or dealt with. For
the minority who take the question to mean "I" personally, some testimony
or sharing of what their activity or experimentation or discovery.
However, the "sustain interest" mindset prevails, managing parts and not
whole.
In either cases, it hardly invokes his or her own shifting paradigm that
can cause transformation thereby influencing the others.
The third problem I see is the person who pose the question:
"How do you sustain interest ....?"
If he or she is part of the system or insider, then the recipient of the
question may feel uncomfortable. And questions unexpressed are : "Are you not
part of the system? Why are you questioning me? Isn't it true that your behavior
destroys any lingering interest?" (if somehow the person who asks the question
is of higher hierarchical authority and if there is some defensive mechanism, or
even colleagues who may appear to score point in front of
the upper management).
If the question is posed by an outsider, well different dynamics take
place. Being outsider, not part of the system, the answer given back is
intellectual in nature. But intellectualization is not necessary System
Thinking that can lead to Personal Mastery.
{The above discussion will be coded as Object and deposited in the Internet
Knowledge Database at Outsights http://www.outsights.com to share with the
Internet community}
Regards
Andrew Wong
Organisation Observer and Thinker
Personal Coach & Organisation Coach
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5621
An associate of Outsights
http://www.outsights.com
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com>
Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>