My name is Brian Wheeler. I'm Director Engineering for O.N.Tel (the long
distance telephone company for northeastern Ontario, Canada). In
engineering we're responsible for O.N.Tel's transmission and switching
infrastructure as well as custom design work. I am also involved in a
cross-functional BPR project for a service order fulfillment process.
Plus I'm involved with a corporate training steering committee.
Also, my wife and I run a home-based business promoting a new television
network devoted to success, personal and professional achievement.
Because of the interest on this list in learning, I wasn't too surprised
to find others in LO who are taking advantage of this service. The
television network, by the way, is called The Peoples Network (TPN).
I have two questions for the group...
1. While I've been champion of the BPR project I mentioned above I've
found that our approach has not been effective in keeping the project
participants on board with what we're doing. There is a definite lack of
ownership in the new process and a fair amount of skepticism around the
project's potential for success. Is it possible to apply LO concepts and
approaches to bring people back and ensure that the project is successful?
I'd like to get some training in shared vision and systems thinking
however, the training is being resisted because it is viewed as
overlapping our recent management training (see #2) and "changing (BPR)
horses in mid-stream".
2. As I mentioned, I'm on the corporate training steering committee.
We've just gone through a management training program. It was a three day
course on supervisory skills, leadership and empowerment. What we've
observed is that people give the material high marks and have enjoyed the
training. The problem seems to be putting it into practice. I hear
comments like we need reminders, reinforcement and follow-up. People seem
to be having some trouble applying it to their situations. I would like
to see us become better at putting training into practice and start
working toward becoming a Learning Organization. What could I suggest to
the rest of the steering committee when we meet next to start the
organization on that path?
P.S. I'm looking into learning some Systems Thinking myself to demonstrate
something tangible to senior management.
Thanks in advance for your comments.
--Brian Wheeler Director Engineering O.N.Tel work: bwheeler@ontel.com home: bwheeler@onlink.net http://www.onlink.net/~bwheeler
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>