On Wed, 3 Jan 1996, Malcolm Burson wrote:
[snipped overview]
> So my question, dear friends, is this: what sorts of steps do we take to
> make it possible for traditionally disempowered, knowledge-poor (in the
> sense of things like basic understanding of the financial structures and
> external customer requirements that drive the business) staff to choose to
> broaden their own individual and common knowledge base, without
> reinforcing the paternalistic structures that allowed them to languish
> there in the first place?
If, as you have indicated in the first part of your post, the areas of
knowledge that are of value came from a "good process" of learning and, I
hope, employee involvement, I would say you are on the right track. The
issue of how to present the material would hinge on making it available to
those who "need" it with some sense of choice and selection remaining with
the employees. Rather than adopting a "here it is, now take it!" approach
which you obviously want to avoid, how about creating an enticing menu of
options from which the employees can choose. If, at the same time, you are
giving them the "time and space" to pursue their chosen learning, that
would be a valuable incentive I would think.
Some of the work in competency based models seems relevent here as well.
Identifying "what" skills employees need to have in order to be successful
is very different than "ordering" them to develop them--especially if one
of the skills is more "empowerment" at the employee level (and I use the
word in quotes on purpose!)
Also, as you stop organizationally "caretaking"--to use the term in Peter
Block's sense--those who haven't perceived the "need" yet, I would expect
most of the other people would eventually choose to "learn" so that they
can continue to "earn."
Even raising the issue suggests that you are sensitive to the danger of
reverting to old patterns, and that is probably the hardest part of the
change effort.
Good luck and good learning on your efforts,
-- Tobin Quereau Austin Community College quereau@austin.cc.tx.us