Keith, in response to Thomas says . . .
> The real risk of the LO philosophy is that it will follow the normal
> course for management "fads" - it will gradually prove successful and the
> sponsoring CEOs will be publicized, then it will become fashionable and
> "everyone" will claim to be doing LO, then when it does not prove to be
> the magic elixir after 12 months, something new will be tried!
> What can we do to prevent this trend that has happened to everything from
> MBOs to Quality etc from happening to LO?
I'll try to be especially articulate in my attempt to answer Keith's very
apropos question.
First, we need to ask ourselves: Why have other management fads (I'd
prefer to call them "management practices" proven ineffective? Here's a
short list of possibilities:
* Because the theory behind the management practices were shallow, or
perhaps unaligned with reality?
* Those who created the theory were simply more intelligent than those who
actually used the practices within a corporation? (If one accepts the
basic premise of the book "The Bell Curve," this is quite a feasible
hypothesis.)
* If we accept that many companies live and breath on current and/or
near-term profits, then the fact that many management practices take time
to implement could be the reason they're discarded so quickly -- and often
abruptly. Are companies unconsciously addicted to quick fixes?
Second, what is it that differentiates a Learning Organization from other
management practices such as Total Quality and Business Process
Reengineering? Are the theories underlying the Learning Organization any
better than those that underlie other management practices?
Third, how does a moving toward a Learning Organization help overcome the
problems that caused the death of so many other management practices? Are
the theories, tools, and methods of a Learning Organization sufficiently
simple that they can be effectively and immediately used by a wide variety
of people (such as those who may not be as intelligent as Senge, Argyris,
Fritz, etc.)? Are the theories behind the Learning Organizations better
aligned with reality than other management practices? If so, are they
aligned sufficiently well that they will be effective and essential
unchallenged for an extended period of time? Will moving toward a Learning
Organization help a company that has serious financial problems today? If
not, the company will die long before it makes any real progress is
becoming a Learning Organization.
I don't know that I answered the question. I do know that I raised more
questions -- questions that I think about quite a bit -- and the answers
to these questions will determine the longevity of the Learning
Organization.
--Benjamin B. Compton ("Ben") | email: bcompton@novell.com Novell, GroupWare Support Quality Manager | fax: (801) 222-6991
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>