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     KEYZINE: An e-zine for LEADERS:
   ABOUT THE PEOPLE PART OF BUSINESS
             Volume 14, May 2002
    Publisher: © Key Associates, LLC, 2002
           http://www.mkkey.com

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This Issue is on "Learning Organizations"

Contents:

    
"The main job of managers in the knowledge-creating 
company is to orient chaos toward purposeful 
knowledge creation."
                                       -Ikujiro Nonaka

"People are born with an innate love of learning."
                                       -W. Edwards Deming

"Learning is immunity to decay."
                                       -John Gardner

"A mind stretched by a new idea never returns 
to its original dimension.
                                       -Abe Lincoln
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WHAT'S HOT IN LEADERSHIP
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STACKING LEARNING ACTIVITIES ON 
TOP OF OTHER FUNCTIONS.  Infuse a morsel 
or snippette of knowledge in every gathering.  
Have conversations while exercising.  Listen
to books on tape while driving.

TEACHING AS WELL AS LEARNING.
Jack Welch, the COE of GE, teaches a 
3 1/2 hour leadership course 5 times a year.

FREE INQUIRY GROUPS where there are no
experts.  Select a written piece to read and 
study the piece as a group. 

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MAINTAINING YOURSELF AS A LEADER
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Have you stalled out on your own learning?

1. Start reading.  Seek sources outside your field.
2. Start drawing.  Open up both sides of your brain.
3. Start talking.  Dialogue is a wonderful way to learn.
4. Keep a journal (start talking to yourself).
5. Commit to a personal improvement plan (PIP).


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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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How can I make sure that everyone is learning 
in my organization? 

Create a Personal Learning Plan that is linked 
to performance review.  After an assessment of 
strengths and weaknesses, commit to learning 
objectives, strategies and timeline.  This must be 
self-directed learning using a multitude of resources--
dialogue, field visits, job rotations, special 
assignments, mentoring, as well as more 
conventional sources like books and conferences.

Once a year, I like to bring in a motivational 
speaker for our company-wide annual meeting.  
Is there a good source for these speakers?

There are several, including http://www.terrificspeakers.com/ 
and http://www.nsaspeaker.org/.  But my concern 
is that many leaders consider this as their educational 
program for the year.  I see this more and more as 
education dollars get tighter--a drive-through version 
with ideas spray-painted on the employees.  Without 
follow-up, it does not change behavior.  People learn 
from experience.  How can you give them unforgettable 
experience?

How important is it to continually bring in experts 
from outside the organization?

Nothing challenges the current order of things better than 
a new idea or point of view.  To stimulate creativity, we 
often invite the views of a child, a person from another 
business, or literature outside the field.  Having said that, 
there are experts within your organization on a multitude 
of topics--untapped.  Incorporate the model of Free Inquiry 
Groups--groups of individuals who dialogue to learn from 
an author and/or from each other, with no experts in the room.
Or make teaching an integral part of personal learning.

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EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
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http://courses.yahoo.com  enables instructors to create 
free course web sites to connect with students and create 
virtual extensions of existing classes.

Learn about Knowledge Maps from Applied Learning Labs-
http://www.appliedlearninglabs.com/kmaps/howwork.html 

An interesting personal growth link, with ideas like 
how to optimize web browsing, boost creativity, learn faster
- http://braindance.com.

Teach your organization how to teach - Facilitating 
the Learning Journey taught by Key Associates.  
Contact us at mailto:keyassocs@mindspring.com.

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OTHER USEFUL WEBSITES 
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http://www.brint.com/OrgLrng.htm - a comprehensive 
site on knowledge management and learning organizations.

http://www-bus.colorado.edu/faculty/larsen/learnorg.html 
- description of the learning organization and online articles.

http://www.insead.fr/CALT/Encyclopedia/ComputerSciences/Groupware/Workflow/ 
-Groupware, a virtual library of links.

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ARTICLES/PUBLICATIONS                              
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 Argyris, Chris & Shon, Donald A. Organizational 
Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective. Reading, 
MA: Addison-Wesley, 1978. 

Beckhard, Richard & Pritchard, Wendy. Changing 
the Essence. (Chapter 2). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992.

Chawla, Sarita & Renesch, John (Eds.) Learning 
Organizations: Developing Cultures for Tomorrow's 
Workplace. Productivity Press, 1995.

Dibella, Anthony J.  Learning Practices: Assessment 
and Action for Organizational Improvement. Prentice 
Hall, 2000.

Garvin, David A. Building a Learning Organization. 
Harvard Business Review, July-August, 1993, 78-91.

Knowles, Malcolm. The Modern Practice of Adult 
Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1980.

Kolb, David A. Experiential Learning. Englewood 
Cliffs, JN: Prentice-Hall, 1984.

Mager, Robert. Preparing Instructional Objectives 
(2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: David S. Lake, 1984.

Nonaka, Ikujiro. The knowledge-creating company. 
Harvard Business Review. November-December, 1991.

Senge, Peter M. The leader’s new work: Building learning 
organizations. Sloan Management Review, Fall, 1990. 7-23.

Senge, Peter M. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and 
Practice of the Learning Organization.  Currency/Doubleday, 
1994.

Senge, Peter M & Kleiner, Art (Eds.) et al.  The Fifth 
Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building
 a Learning Organization.Currency/Doubleday, 1994.

Senge, Peter M. et.al.  The Dance of Change: The 
Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning 
Organizations.  New York: Doubleday, 1999.

Sholtes, Peter R. The Leader’s Handbook: A Guide 
to Inspiring Your People and Managing the Daily 
Workflow. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998.

Watkins, Karen E. & Marsick, Victoria J. Sculpting 
the Learning Organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 
1993.

Wick, Calhoun W. & Leaon, Lu S. The Learning 
Edge: How Smart Mangers and Smart Companies 
Stay Ahead. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1994.

Please check our Back Issues:

            Volume 1, April 2001-On Leadership

            Volume 2, May 2001- On Innovation

            Volume 3, June 2001-On Coaching

            Volume 4, July 2001-On Change

            Volume 5, August 2001 -On Spirit at Work

            Volume 6, September 2001 - On Stress 
            Reactions to Terrorism and Major Disasters

            Volume 7, October 2001 - On Mediating Conflict  

            Volume 8, November 2001 - On Keeping Customers 

            (Volume 9 - A survey for subscribers only)

            Volume 10, January 2002 - On Meetings

            Volume 11, February 2002 - On Teams

            Volume 12, March 2002 - On Facilitation

            Volume 13, April 2002 - On Trust & Integrity

Simply visit our website http://www.mkkey.com and 
click on "Subscribe to our Newsletter/Get Back Issues."

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Contact:

M. K. Key, Ph.D.
Psychologist
Key Associates, LLC
Nashville, Tennessee
(615) 255-0011, fax (615) 665-1622