Stephanie (LO19471) wrote, "...Lastly, as I learn about LOs, it seems that
if a true LO were to exist, the amount of time spent on dialoguing,
learning etc., might be quite considerable. How does one balance this
with their "job description?" .....
What we really need is a replacement of behaviors, not an addition of
activities or behaviors. We need a different approach. In other words, I
don't think being a Learning Organization necessarily "takes more time"
(except perhaps up front in exposing org'l learning principles to
employees).
This reminds me of the time once when a senior manager asked me "Why
should I spend money on getting employees to communicate?" One of my
answers to him was to recognize that employees are already "communicating"
but they are often doing it ineffectively or silently. For example,
employees often say one thing (or nothing) while believing another and
never "test" their assumptions. Lots of self-monitoring goes on now..."I
wonder what he means -- I'd better be careful I don't get into trouble so
I won't say anything.." We waste an inordinate amount of time because we
don't know how to surface assumptions, check our reasoning, etc.
As Chris Argyris says, what we need is a new kind of self-monitoring, one
that becomes more public and where people can learn from it. Therefore,
private self-monitoring goes down and public monitoring goes up (dialogue)
and the necessity for spending time on monitoring overall goes down in
general because people are learning from these encounters and experiences.
The work that I do involves helping organizations set up team learning
programs (one being The Team Learning Lab) and training internal team
learning coach(es). People are exposed to org'l learning principles as
part of a learning team (their coworkers) in sessions lasting from 1.5
hours or more over a period of weeks. This format allows distributed
learning, reinforcement, practice, and application with one another in the
workplace. Supported by a coach, the team members learn how to
"facilitate" themselves (there is a videotape and workbook to provide some
structure), each taking turns actually reading from the book and "leading"
that part - the personal and team consequences of this simple activity are
amazing (perhaps I will write about this at another time). Then they
directly apply the material to their team, work and organization.
I have decided that one of the reasons this format works is not really
because they are learning LO principles (which we who read this List find
valuable), but because they directly experience a new way of talking and
of working with one another , solving problems, talking about team vision
-- and it works and they like it! This experience is what helps to
maintain the use of this new way of thinking and talking.
Regards from the red and yellow and green Midwest,
Claire
Claire McCarty Kilian, Ph.D.
MR Communication Consultants
16700 County Hwy UN
Chippewa Falls, WI 54729
715-726-0561 (phone) 715-726-0563 (fax) ClaireKil@aol.com
www.mrcomm.com
Offering "The Team Learning Lab"...a practical program to improve results
through systems thinking, mental models, and shared vision.
--Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>