Re: The Un-Learning Organization

Keith Cowan (cowan@pci.on.ca)
Sat, 12 Nov 1994 10:39:48 -0500 (EST)

Mike Gurstein wrote:
> Equal I think, to the problem of how to get an organization to learn is
> how to get an organization to "un"learn the lessons, drills, practices,
> memories of its past.

This is a useful analogy. Organizations evolve like people, and try to
codify their learnings to simplify this complex world. As the world
inevitably changes, this codification becomes obsolete. The accelerating
pace of change makes the old ways of codification less useful. Thus the
procedure manuals created in the Seventies lay dusty and obsolete. The
training programs from five (2?) years ago are no longer relevant, and
to return to the root of the thread, the org charts no longer serve the
useful role they once did...

-- 
Keith Cowan       Phone: (416)565-6253           FAX: (905)764-9604
Toronto        Internet: cowan@pci.on.ca  Compuserve: 72212,51