I agree with your idea of reframing the problem as seeing
you as the top management.
The November issue of the "Sytem's Thinker" provides an
outline of how to begin the formation of a learning
organization in a small group. I plan on using that as a
beginning point next week with one of my work groups.
I am one of 16,000 employees on my site. Lots of systemic
opportunities (it's a Department of Energy site). I have
spent three years studying and promoting LO ideas to upper
management, yet I was the only one out of 16,000 that went
to the annual conference last year.
So, from my experience, one can't wait for upper management
to change. Either start where you are at, or fire your
company and work for one that is serious about becoming a
learning organization.
Perhaps a "grass roots" subject for this list would be
helpful in generating experiences, lessons-learned, and
success stories (as well as "not so succesful" stories) from
others who are trying to implement from a bottoms-up
approach. In the three years of reading, studying, learning,
networking, and attending the annual ST conferences, grass
roots stories are one source of information I am still
looking for.
TFYY93A@prodigy.com (MR GEOFFREY F FOUNTAIN)