Introduction -- Ed Swanstrom LO2284

swanstrom.e@adlittle.com
Mon, 31 Jul 1995 11:48:31 -0400

Hi. I'm Ed Swanstrom of Arthur D. Little (based in Cambridge, Mass.).
I head a practice out of Arlington, Virginia that helps companies
build their own change and learning management system based on their
culture. Let me give you a brief overview of my current activities.

I am currently working with two clients. One is a goverment agency and
the other is a fortune 500 company.

What might interest some in this group is the mixture of approaches I
found to be successful.

First -- a learning organization approach.
Second -- ADL's Pathways to Performance -- continuous improvement.
Third -- object-oriented modeling of the processes needing improvement
including the change and learning management process itself.

The total approach is called the Object-oriented Change and Learning
(tm) approach.

Object-orientation is a great complexity buster. OO helps model detail
and dynamic complexity. Building OO static and dynamic OO models is a
powerful big step to systems thinking. The model is reusable,
changeable, and adaptable. The objects and the object interactions
change when processes are improved, but object identities remain
constant. Having models and objects stored in a central repository
promotes collective reflection.

OOCL promotes the creation of shared awareness, development of shared
understanding, and the production of aligned action.

********************************************************************

I have been a member of this list server for several months and have
found the dialogue very educational. Many of the comments have helped
me improve my own change and learning management process -- I am
grateful for the insights. I intend to reciprocate.

I have setup a Lotus Notes system for collective reflection to
incourage team members to provide feedback. Has anyone else used Lotus
Notes for building learning organizations? If so, how?

-----
Host's Note: Welcome Ed! There are several sites that facilitate
participation in the learning org list by taking the message flow and
placing it in a local Notes database. And, there will be sessions on
Learning Organization and groupware at the Groupware '95 conference
8/16-18 in San Jose, including one by me.

-- Rick Karash, rkarash@world.std.com, host for learning-org
-----

--
     Ed Swanstrom
     OOCL Practice Leader
     Arthur D. Little

swanstrom.e@adlittle.com