Vana Prewitt writes:
> However, within a learning organization, one cannot assume that the
> stockholder or customer will learn simply because members of the company
> learn. A deliberate purpose must exist for this to occur. I've honestly
> not seen a model for an LO that encompasses the customer, stockholder,
> and community. Does one exist?
My manager asked me to help our HR committee 'think about' the staff
turnover problem in our IT group. Using a systems thinking approach, we
identified some interesting and relevant variables, then began to paste
them together into a feedback structure. Eventually I asked them for the
direct causes of staff turnover, and they identified exactly two:
Employee Satisfaction and Competition in the Marketplace for Talent. We
talked very briefly about asking the other companies in town to treat
their staff badly and pay them poorly so that our turnover rate would go
down. That did not seem a very promising path. We turned our attention
instead to the causes of Employee Satisfaction, and then the discussion
got really interesting.
As often happens in my experience, we shifted to a richer question with
the potential for higher leverage interventions after about an hour and a
half of dialogue. (What are the implications for sessions which quit
after the first hour, you might ask?)
On a separate front, the model offered by DiBella and Nevis in their book
'How Organizations Learn' specifically includes attention to Knowledge
Source and Value-Chain Focus as Learning Orientations; it also includes
Scanning Imperative, Organizational Curiosity, and Systems Perspective as
Facilitating Factors.
Michael A
- Michael Ayers
Mailto: mbayers@mmm.com Voice (651) 733-5690) FAX (651) 737-7718
IT CC&PD 3M Center 224-2NE-02 PO Box 33224 St. Paul MN 55133-3224
** Sometimes the right question is, 'Are we asking the right question?' **
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