Intro -- James McGarrahan LO3758

Fjalex@aol.com (CAPT=JAMES=G=MCGARRAHAN%MMEA-1%HQMC@mqg-smtp3.usmc.mil)
Sun, 19 Nov 1995 11:59:40 -0500

I'm a Captain in the Marine Corps and a member of a team of officers
attempting to introduce such things as systems thinking tools and other
disciplines of the learning organization to the various agencies under
Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps. At this time, we don't have any official
mandate to study and report on the potential value added offered by the
learning organization -- several of us, however, have come to undertake
the same quest independently, and we're finding it extremely rewarding.

We currently have several different projects ongoing in various components
of the Corps, using several diverse methodologies (ranging from MBO to TQM
to our own Warfighting Doctrine) to study various aspects of our
processes. Our team, and several others, are each trying to explore ideas
such as "continuous process improvement," "benchmarking," "learning
organizations," etc, to find and select the most appropriate management
paradigm for the Marine Corps in the 21st century.

It's my personal belief that the "learning organization" holds the most
promise for our organization. My particular area of interest right now
lies in how to sell the program to senior leadership. More than any other
approach, it seems to me that the LO approach requires the full and
passionate support of every leader from the CEO on down. I'm also very
interested in consultant/practioner topics like: how to ensure "dialogue"
replaces "diatribe," establishing measures of effectiveness, promoting and
refining a long-term vision.

I look forward to joining the round table . . .

James McGarrahan
CAPT, USMC

e-mail to: CAPT JAMES G MCGARRAHAN@MMEA-1@HQMC@mqg-smtp3.usmc.mil

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