> From: kent_myers@smtplink.sra.com
> Date: Thu, 16 Mar 95 11:53:55 EST
>
<<< some stuff deleted here >>>
>
> Consider what we are doing here on LO. There's some great stuff that I
> have to throw away because I don't have time to process it. If it were
> posted to a structure of knowledge (more than to puny threads and
> non-commital subject lines) I would be able to scan what was new, but also
> look it up later in context, and having it all together would force
> someone to keep rearranging it and writing synthetic essays. There's
> learning going on, but it is episodic. I'd rather it be awesome.
>
> Kent Myers kent_myers@smtplink.sra.com
> -----
> Host's Note: The content on this mailing list is a microcosm of the
> problem. I'd love to see a repository for the valuable exchanges that are
> occuring here, something that would go beyond the delivery based paradigm
> of e-mail and create a repository that people could come to when they
> needed something.
[...more stuff deleted here by your host...]
> -- Rick Karash, rkarash@world.std.com, host for learning-org
> -----
When I refer to the "organizational memory," I am talking about
knowledge that is not contained in reports, or any other for of mechanism
that can be retrieved at any moment, and by anyone. I talk about what
Kent and Rick are mentioning here. A good example of this could be an
experience narrated in one my classes a year ago by a student who lived
through it.
There is fast-food company headquarted down in Miami that learned
a very good lesson as a result of the devastating effects of Hurricane
Andrews, two years ago. Right after the hurricane, people showed for work
dressed with what they could find. Some of them in shorts and a t-shirt,
some in jeans,... etc. Company officials developed a new udnerstanding of
people's intentions, and appreciated very much the fact that people who
have lost everything (houses, clothes, etc.), still foudn the way to make
to work and keep the company mpving. Well, to make a long story very
short, the top brass of this company decided to relax its strict dress
code for all employees, and even set Fridays as a dress-as-you-want day,
or something like that.
A little less than a year ago that CEO left the company and a new
one took over. The rigid dress code cam back, the strict rules that
existed before also came back, and a few hundred employees where sent home
forever... Everything has gone "back to normal". Well, the former CEO's
learning experience left with him, and nobody else benefitted from it.
I think that what we need is a mechanism that replicates the
"'round the fires" type of conversations, that I am sure exist at the
lower levels of many organizations (informal socialization), where this
knowledge can be transmitted and used, improved, etc. I have been in
organizations where a huge part of what is done is accomplished through
this type of "informal" memory. For instance, in the Fire Department in
Caracas, Venezuela, there is the technical part of the job. That one is
in the books! But there are a lot of other events, social celebrations,
part of the pplanning, etc. taht takes place in an informal, but very
formal (?), way. For instance, a member that has participated in similar
events in the past would be used as a source of information in the
preparation of the same event today. They learned to use cross functional
teams in this way back in the early 1970's.
Ivan,
***************************************************************
R. IVAN BLANCO, Ph.D. Voice 305 899-3515
Assoc. Prof. & Director Fax 305 892-6412
International Business Programs
Andreas School of Business _________E-Mail Addresses________
Barry University Bitnet: Blanco%bu4090@Barryu
Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695 Internet: Blanco@bu4090.barry.edu
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"Las naciones marchan hacia el termino de su grandeza, con
el mismo paso que camina su educacion." "The nations march
toward their greatness at the same pace as their educational
systems evolve." Simon Bolivar
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