Malcolm asks -- pardon my abbreviation --
a - How would an LO practitioner recognize an organization where he or she
could practice their LO skills, be appreciated, and flourish.
b - Which of the 5 disciplines are most important to hone in preparation
for the search?
c - Once such an organization is found, how should the person present
themselves to the employer?
Some preliminary thoughts. LO skills are good skills to have when
conducting a job search. But they are only skills. Identify what work
will be satisfying to you, recognizing that almost any reasonalby complex
job will allow you to use LO skills profitably. I suggest that an
organization _must_ have -- and adhere to -- guiding principles that
resonate with you. These are _your_ Self-evident truths.
Start with b. Personal Mastery. Personal Mastery requires that you know
at least rudimentarily how to use the other disciplines. It also requires
you to know yourself which is critical in identifying a 'partner' that you
want to have a long term relation with.
Regarding a, see the preliminary thoughts above. The goal should not be
to find an LO organization, but to find an organization that has SETs that
are important to you, and that are important to the organization. Most
social work organizations, for example, have SETs that revolve around
serving people, which inherently resonates with most of us.
Unfortunately, these SETs are not generally applied to their own
employees, so there is a disconnect in their execution.
Regarding c, use your LO skills to help you have insight into the
struggles of the organization. Practice dialog, but connect the dialog to
concrete suggestions for change. Remember, the organization needs to
solve its urgent day-to-day problems. They do not particularly care if
you are an LO practitioner, but they do care if you can help solve
problems. As an LO person, you have powerful skills to bring to bear.
--Rol Fessenden LL Bean, Inc. 76234.3636@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>