Favorite Q's about Learning LO8682

grundy@geis.geis.com
Fri, 26 Jul 96 20:09:00 UTC 0000

Replying to LO8664 --

Dave Pollard left four questions at the end of his document.

>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)

I believe the motivation to learn is within most individuals in a compnay.
The problem is that the company punishes the individuals for taking the
time out of their schedule to go out and learn. We have to give
individuals a true opportunity to go out, learn new technology or ways of
doing things within the work place.

>(b) Since everyone learns differently, how do you develop curricula that are
>robust and flexible enough to serve at least most people?

Learning can be done and should be done in many different ways. There are
a lot of diffeent programs out there that help individuals improve their
skills and abilities. By getting to know the individuals and allowing the
individuals to help decide what type of training works best for them, the
company and individual can get the most out of the training.

>(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)?

This to me sounds like they are willing to give up future success for fear
of failure. How can a compnay continue moving forward without gaining
knowledge. Without knowledge noone knows that there is anything better
out there. Your statement successful in "Short-term" measures is correct.
It is extremely unlikely that any individual or company can continue being
successful without continuing to acquire knowledge.

>(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)?

To me it seems that specialized learning should be somthing that is driven
by management and needs to be dispersed to make the team effective. This
is training that the company should provide and should be done on their
time. The generalist learning is somthing that should be driven by the
employee. Management must make sure not to discourage the employee form
seeking this type of learning, but must also expect the employee to be
reasonable about how it effects their work.

Learning is somthing we all need to coninue moving forward. Without new
knowledge, we sdo not know that there is abetter way to do things.

Thanks,

Brian Grundy

-- 

grundy@geis.geis.com

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