Re: Def. of Learning Org LO4109

Willard Jule (75272.3452@compuserve.com)
06 Dec 95 22:05:44 EST

Replying to LO4025 --

David Hurst wrote

"I think that this is born out by Willard Jule's definitions which I think
are admirable but are they inputs or outputs? "Learn", "discover", "work
together" are all verbs defined by outcomes. It seems to me that these
definitions translate action into thought but not vice versa. They allow
one to recognize an LO after the fact, but don't not help much when we try
to go forward. So apart from helping us coordinate our use of language so
that we can have conversations what are the purposes of looking for a
definition of a learning organization?"

Answer. The purpose of defining any end state is at least three-fold. It
enables us to know when we are in that state; it enables us to know how
far away we are from that state; and it enables us to do backward planning
to determine what we ahve to do to get there from here.

Given these thoughts, the definition that I proposed to a learning
organization is woefully inadequate. I wrote a brief paper (20 pages) to
help people know what they will experience when they are in a learning org
kind of environemnt. The paper describes the principles, paradigms,
processes, and behaviors one will experience. As I type this I realize
that the only place in that paper that I address results of all this is in
the description of the conditions for peak performance and that is an
inadequate description.

In any case, the bottom line on this statement is that one liner
definitions may be accurate but they are probaly not adequate for the
purpose of moving us to action, i.e., generating creative tension.

Later.

Willard

--
Willard Jule <75272.3452@compuserve.com>