Does LO really exists? LO23031

Mark W. McElroy (mmcelroy@vermontel.com)
Wed, 27 Oct 1999 09:11:23 -0400

Replying to LO23015 --

Miss Nordalina:

In the spirit of "I think, therefore I am," "Organizations know,
therefore they learn." You cannot have one without the other. If you
doubt the notion of organizational learning, or LOs, then how do you
explain the fact that organizations possess collectively-held knowledge?
Where did that knowledge come from, and why does it change? It comes from
organizational learning and it changes by the same means.

All organizations are "learning organizations"; they can't help it,
they're living systems. Some, however, are better learners than others.
This is the challenge of organizational learning, and knowledge
management, in my view: to help organizations better fulfill their natural
tendencies to generate collectively-held knowledge (i.e., to innovate and
to learn). This amounts to the application of a well-grounded
organizational learning model to a given organization; identifying the
gaps between current and target states; and resolving those gaps with
various remedial interventions. The hard part is coming up with the right
"well-grounded organizational learning model."

Mark W. McElroy

-- 

"Mark W. McElroy" <mmcelroy@vermontel.com>

Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>