I am working on designing a conference for the Church of England on
LO - it is aimed at change agents/facilitator types within the
church and was commissioned by the National Missioner
We brought together a 'design team' of people this week to find out
what the issues were and to begin to understand their needs - I
have tons of data (if anyone would like to see it all - they
talked about their roles and what they were trying to achieve in
them, the challenges and difficulties they face and the
opportunities and joys they expereience... we also did an imagine
we are leaving type of desired outcomes thinking...)
We finally pulled all this together into a purpose/aims for the
conference which look like this....
TO DRAW ON THE INSIGHTS AND SKILLS OF 'LEARNING ORGANISATIONS' TO
DISCOVER NEW WAYS OF UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF THE CHURCH TO BE A
COMMUNITY THAT LIVES THE GOSPEL
This will happen by enabling participants to
- experience and therefore understand the principles of LO
- reflect on the spiritual/theological roots of such practice
- develop LO skills for ourselves and others
- identify the levers by which change happens
- ensure that we have support networks to sustain us in these tasks
If anyone has any thoughts or ideas on this I would be interested to share
them......
I also thought many of you would be interested to know it is happening....
I am only slightly nervous at their energy and aspirations for this....
[I am working with Billie Alban - a Conneticut based consultant who has
been doing a lot of work researching and promoting whole system/large
scale approaches to change - she co-edited the 1992 Journal of Allied
Behavioural Science special edition on large scale interventions with
Barbara Bunker and she also is on the staff team of the Columbia programme
- some of you will know her I am sure]
-- Julie Beedon VISTA Consulting - for a better future julie@vistabee.win-uk.net