I am the manager of Continuous Improvement at Oncology Systems, a Varian
Associates company. I've been involved in TQM for 5 years, organization
development and change for 10 years. I live and work in Palo Alto,
California, USA.
I have been reading and experimenting with Senge's approach to learning
organizations for almost two years, but I've been practicing the
disciplines, especially mental models and personal mastery for years...it
seems lifetimes.
Change management has been my preoccupation since I first attended an
encounter group in 1970, when I went back to graduate school for my
degrees in communication theory and research. In graduate school, I read
a lot about system theory (as the basis for communication theory), but
have only retained the basics (time does weaken memories). I'm a SLOW
learner in systems thinking (the Stanford learning organization web
encourages us to identify the areas where we are "slow" learners so we can
get help), even though most of the concepts seem familiar once I get into
them in depth. I still stumble over the archetypes and causal models.
I want to contact other people who are working in corporations to explore
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS of the five disciplines. My assumptions are that
by focusing on the "practical" I can:
* relate better to the theory if I have a practical example (that's how I
learned statistics)
* generate more useful guidance to my organization if I understand what
other companies have done/are doing
* share and strengthen the "wee bit of wisdom" I've accumulated in service
of other people and organizations
-- Margie Mulligan e-mail [margie.mulligan@OS.varian.com]