Barriers to Learning LO457

James Moore (zoiho@digex.net)
Fri, 17 Mar 1995 22:20:57 -0500 (EST)

Replying to LO316 --

Diane,

Your last comment called for observations on counter Learning
Organization activities within organizations. I feel that one trend that
is an obstacle to the development of learning organizations is
downsizing. Specifically when downsizing is part of an organization's
strategy that also includes Quality themes.

Quality initiatives typically focus on the value of the experience and
creativity of the individual worker. The worker is viewed as an asset.

Downsizing, as a financial model, views workers (salaries) as expenses to
be eliminated. The convergence of these approaches upon the potential
learning organization candidate can be interperted as organizational
doublespeak - "War is Peace", "Help us eliminate jobs".

It has been my experience that organizational trust is a fundamental
element in the development of these learning structures. In the land of
double speak it may be seen as wiser to horde resources (information,
contacts, etc.) and avoid risk (new learning opportunities) and last a
few more years then participate in a processes that may eliminate your
job or embarass your hierarchical oriented leader.

Please forgive the pessimistic tone. Recently, I was involved with the
development of teams in West Coast aerospace defense contractors. I was
involved with teams training and stress management courses for layoff'd
employees. Our layoff numbers averaged 150 people a week for five
years. This experience taints my view of forward thinking leaders fully
supporting learning organizations (and its short term risks) as
oppossed to downsizing and outsourcing.

Through all of this I do believe that there are leaders out there who
are willing to take (at the implementation level) the development of
the ideal of learning organizations, but I feel they are in far fewer
numbers then is needed by the business community.

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From: James Moore <zoiho@digex.net>

On Fri, 3 Mar 1995, DZITEK wrote in LO316:

>
> Learning requires information.
> Information leads to knowledge.
> Information is power.
>
> Translated: When information is used as a source of power, learning
> can't take place.
>
> Diane Zitek
> DZITEK@CCM.EDU