Defining/Describing LO LO3206

GMBrady@aol.com
Mon, 16 Oct 1995 16:27:25 -0400

Replying to LO3184 --

Was: Intro -- David Reed LO3184

David Reed asks, " How can the culture of a learning organization be
described?"

I haven't read Senge for several months, am housebound recovering from
surgery and can't get to the library to check him out, so I should
probably keep quiet. Stepping into the middle this particular list with a
comment beginning with my own definition of a learning organization is
almost certainly a mistake. But fools rush in....How about, for starters,
the very general: "A learning organization is a collection of individuals
who share an environment, important ideas, and patterns of action."?

If you start with this definition, four major kinds of information useful
in describing the culture of an organization have been identified:

"...a collection of individuals...(number, gender balance, inherent
physical characteristics of members, etc.)

"...environment...(location, physical plant, tools/equipment, resource
base, infrastructure, etc.)

"...important ideas...(about own identity, each other, time, shared goals,
acceptable action, ownership, the future, etc.)

"...patterns of action." (Patterns for work, play, communicating,
socializing, decision making, controlling deviant behavior, etc.)

These four main headings, with appropriate subheads similar to those I've
suggested, could give you a comprehensive outline for describing every
aspect of the operation. The four may encompass more than you might have
considered as part of the culture, but systemic relationships being what
they are, all are useful.

Incidentally, if you do the above, you can then take each of the
several-dozen individual elements in turn, identify the range of possible
alternatives for that element, treat each alternative as a possible
variable, and hypothesize about the systemic consequences of adoption of
it (a particular change in physical plant configuration, a different
pattern for decision making, a different idea about goals, whatever) on
the total system/culture. You'll have a paradigm-breaking tool that you
can play with creatively for just about forever.

--
Marion Brady
GMBrady@aol.com