Rol, I think you've hit the nail on the head with your concern about
creating learning orgs in "...environments where practice is not
practiced."
I've found that anything longer than a half-day with front-lines folks is
too long for the organization. Work piles up, so do labor costs (I can
almost hear the Chief Financial Officer screaming in the background as I
write)!
I may be a heretic about this, but I believe that it's possible to develop
a learning org in these environments without breaking the organization's
back. I think it starts with some committment from a senior management
level to develop a learning strategy for the organization (which I suspect
you probably have done). Create learning circles, dialog opportunities,
host workshops and encourage a series of conversations about learning,
strategies and learning goals. Set some milestones for widening
boundaries for people to try new levels of power and authority.
I started out with a cadre of people who were already leaders in their
workgroups. We met for four hours once each month, with some "home" work
on the side. We worked as a group to set new boundaries, procedures and
to identify learning objectives for the whole group. After about three
months, I began convening workshops for the rest of the workgroups
(repeated at least twice to ensure that each person who wanted to be
involved could be with at least a third of the workforce). These
workshops occurred once monthly--4 hours per month per person for about a
year.
We identified some extensive savings (through improved processes) that we
were able to use to pay for a "training" day on a weekend day. It was a
voluntarily attended workshop. All but 2 showed up (30 invited).
By integrating the learning into their work (turning tacit knowledge into
action knowledge), we were able to begin standardizing new norms of
behavior.
Now, this was quite a bit of work for me -- and there were some additional
expenses, but not extensive (in a nonprofit, there's rarely $$ for
training--and even less rare is the time to attend).
This is to glib a response, I understand--and though I don't know what
you've attempted, I believe that you've been through something similar.
The issue (for me, at least) is sustaining the change of a culture once
it's started. More and more I'm convinced that it's in the activities and
conversations that represent the networking (and cultural basis) of the
organization itself.
Doc
Rol Fessenden wrote:
> It may be in the handbook, but there were real examples. Unfortunately,
> the bulk of the examples were about sports teams, symphonies, dance
> groups, etc. Unfortunate not because these are not good examples.
> Unfortunate only becausethey share a critical trait that is not available
> in most profit or non-profit organizations, and that is that they all
> spend more time practicing than in executing (one could add military org
> here as well). Personally, I believe this is why they are such good
> examples of learning orgs. I don't understand how to transport that
> example to environments where practice is not practiced.
-- "The future is uncertain . . . but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity." -Ilya PrigogineThresholds <http://www.thresholds.com> Meeting Masters <http://www.thresholds.com/masters.html> Richard C. "Doc" Holloway Astoria, Or & Olympia, WA USA ICQ# 10849650 voice 360.786.0925
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