>Roy Benford <roy@benford.demon.co.uk> writes:
>As an example of an organization that has poor
>organizational learning, I would like to suggest my local
>parish council. Recently, I scanned through old minutes
>of meetings prior to sending them to the local archives. I
>found it interesting to note that some topics would repeat
>with varying cycles and the problems were the same. The
>clerk and past chairman, agreed with this view, so the view
>was unlikely to have emerged from some personal bias in
>my information processing. My interpretation of this is that
>the council is not learning or it is forgetting what had been
>learnt. The cycles were typically in excess of 5 years which
>is outside, in my experience, most commercial organizations
>measuring periods.
This always happens when there is no accountability. In this case there
was perceived accountability but since there were no effective measures
and a floating membership no one really knew.
Accountability without truly effective measures is a myth. Most often
measures are not the best indicators of how well the process is working
but indicate other process. For example budget conformance is usually big
in churches. It indicates compliance not how well the church spreads the
gospel.
Accountability with unstable membership is the same as giving two people
an assignment. No one is accountable.
You are right a learning organization requires feedback of the right
information .
et
Eugene Taurman
interLinx ilx@execpc.com http://www.execpc.com/~ilx
What you are is determined by the thoughts that dominate your mind.
Paraphrase of Proverbs Ch 23 vs 7 KJV
--Eugene Taurman <ilx@execpc.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>