Intro -- Dave Pollard LO8639

Dave Pollard (pollardd@inforamp.net)
Wed, 24 Jul 1996 15:09:39 -0400

Hello, group. I'm the Chief Knowledge Officer (yes, I know, pretentious
title) for Ernst & Young in Canada, and my job includes helping to
transition E&Y into a "knowledge-driven" (i.e. learning) organization.
I've read Senge's work and have used Systems Thinking in focus groups and
in problem-solving. I work closely with our Boston Center for Business
Innovation and have done "knowledge and innovation consulting"-type work
with several organizations. I would commend to members of this list two
recent "thought leadership" pieces that have much to say about learning:
(1) the DiscoveryShop web site, that has a ton of links to useful
resources on intellectual capital and learning, and (2) the August 5/96
Fortune article on Communities of Practice ("The Invisible Key to
Success") that quotes the Institute for Research on Learning as saying
"Learning is social: however romantic the image of the scholar bent over
his desk in the lamplight, learning happens in groups". Great stuff!

I've been following the threads in this group for a week or so and haven't
yet been inclined to respond, but I'd be very interested in any threads that
deal with my four favourite subjects about learning:
(a) How do you motivate and reward Continuous Learning in organizations?
(the "I'm to busy to learn about that" problem)
(b) Since everyone learns differently, how do you develop curricula that are
robust and flexible enough to serve at least most people?
(c) How do you deal with irascible senior executives who think that, because
they have been successful (by traditional short-focus measures) in business,
they don't need to learn new things (like how to use computers)?
(d) How do you strike the magic balance between specialized learning
(necessary to develop distinctive competencies) and generalist learning
(necessary to creativity, innovation and idea cross-pollination)?

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dave Pollard, Chief Knowledge Officer, Ernst & Young
Caledon Hills, Ontario, Canada
pollardd@inforamp.net
Dave.Pollard@CA.EYI.com

-- 

Dave Pollard <pollardd@inforamp.net>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>