Re: Future of HR in LOs LO3395

DwBuff@aol.com
Mon, 23 Oct 1995 23:38:31 -0400

In LO3340, Art Kleiner wrote...

>>I agree your question is useful. Very useful to me. I am just trying to
>>understand exactly what you were asking...
>> I could have asked it better this way:
>> Are you saying that the L.O. community tends to think
>> that every successful organizational change effort must have a
>>"learning organization" or "learning disciplines" component?

I do find this question provocative Art. It hangs on a sense of
responsibility on me for my reasoning to bring LO disciplines
into Dow. We have a responsibility to people to allow them
to grow to their fullest. And, I believe the five disciplines are
a minimum to allow this to happen.

I do not believe every successful organization will be a Learning
Organization. When you say organization, as in learning org,
I do not believe smaller organizations need a lot of the heads and
hearts engaged in the learning. A few can do the experimenting
and the rest memorize or be taught how to do the new tricks of
the technology without participating in the learning. I've seen
it and I see it happening. A couple of very good engineers, a
few interested operators, a maintenance person or two - all
interested in improvement can do delightful things to an operation.

I had the experience of working with about 40 operators and 10
maintenance people while being an engineer. It only took about
20 per cent of them to be interested to make significant gains in
the range of 10-20 percent productivity in 18-24 months. Mostly
I found people interested in being creative and the rest happened.

I do believe the others acquiesced to what we were doing because they
came to understand their work would get easier due to our efforts. For
the most part, the rest were passive, not offering much to the learning.

Would we have been more successful if most of them participated?
Yes!! Is it necessary? No. Not as long as a few care passionately and
the rest cooperate. In a larger organization, I believe the five disciplines
will be necessary in the not too distance future - like maybe 5 to 10
years ago - to continue rapid growth. Will all organizations admit to
doing it? No! Those that are practicing forms of shared vision and
dialogue will may not even know it since they are too busy being
successful to question their management practices.

Have a great day!!

--
Dave Buffenbarger
Organizational Improvement Coach
Dow Chemical Company
dwbuff@aol.com