This renewed discussion of learning organizations reminds me of when I
became a Geologist. A lot of words that had 'generic' meanings to almost
everyone who spoke English, all of a sudden took on very specific
technical meanings to me as a Geologist. when I discussed Geology with
non-specialists I had to be very careful to distinguish between my
technical meanings, and the meanings that people had grown up with.
Another example comes from a quote I recently heard attributed to George
Bernard Shaw (perhaps in this discussion) that Britain and the US were two
great nations separated by a common language. Again, his meaning was that
we use the same words, but behind the words we have different meanings,
and we don't realize it.
The term 'Learning Organization' used in this forum has a specific
technical meaning. The meaning differs depending on who you ask, but one
thing most of us agree on is that most historical organizations were not
learning organizations in a new sense that we are still struggling to
define.
For example, Senge would say -- I believe -- that a LO has to practice
certain very specific skills, such as systemic thinking, reflective
inquiry, and dialog. Historically, organizations survived without
practicing those skills. Survival is not a symptom of a learning
organization. Thriving is not a symptom, either, although my definition
of LO would require that it perform at an extraordinary level. In the
absence of high performance, who needs this new concept? But that is only
my viewpoint, not necessarily widely shared. I would argue that a true LO
to me would have a significant, possibly overwhelming, competitive
advantage over a traditional organization.
So, in summary, one can _say_ that of course organizations learn because
they have survived, improved, evolved. However, that is not enough to
meet a new, technical, more powerful definition. If we can succeed in
defining this new concept, we willl be one step further along in being
able to replicate very powerful organizations. We are not there yet, but
we some clarity about what is excluded.
-- Rol Fessenden LL Bean 76234.3636@compuserve.com