I have been hanging out in the shadows for about a month, reading, often
with amusement the ranging and rambling discussions of this list. I have
also developed the discipline of reading and deleting according to subject
line in order to manage the volume of mail messages (thank goodness for
eudora mailbox filters). I wanted to make a short comment and ask for
some help.
1) On Inner circles. I think some of us are missing the point. This
listserv serves much more of a social need than an
organizational/professional need. Therefore trying to figure this inner
circle stuff out by org. design is limited. A few years back I did some
work with churches and in that process read deeply in "church growth"
literature. A sociologist named Lyle Schaller published a book called
"Assimilating New Members" in which he argued for the reasons why new
members of churches feel include in the "inner circle." His premise said
that activity factors (works on committees, teach Sunday school, etc.) and
softer social factors (being connected to 3 or more people, feeling others
cared for them) were equally important factors. So, on this list, I would
suggest that being part of the inner circle includes not only
participation but also making cyber/social connections with other list
members. When both are present one is likely to feel part of the inner
circle when one is absent less likely.
2) I am currently completing a Master's degree in educational technology
to complement my public health education training. I am taking an
independent study that is looking at ways that technology is being used to
strengthen performance assessments. Since learning organizations are
ultimately about performance improvements, I thought some of you might
have some real life case studies that could be used to illustrate a rather
pithy and somewhat academic paper. Results of this project will be used
in 3 ways. a) I will get 3 academic credit hours, b) the modified paper
will be submitted to a journal like PI or something, and c) Allison
Rossett, the professor mentoring me on this and many other things, is
currently writing a book on performance assessments and this technology
paper will serve as the basis for one of the book chapters.
So, if you have completed or have ongoing ways that you have used
technology to support performance assessments I would be interested in
hearing from you. Ideally, your case study should not be an afterthought
but an intentional design (ie., use/d email to conduct a focus group,
have/had employees complete surveys on the company intranet WWW site;
mine/d performance data to set training priorities). Ideal... ideally,
the case study might already have been written up internally or externally
(conference/publication). So if you have a case study, let me know by
email, phone or fax. Ultimately I will need a short narrative and
complete contact info so I can properly credit the source and finally your
willingness to have the case study used (with credit but no compensation)
in a journal article and/or book chapter.
Mark Fulop, MPH, CHES fulop@mail.sdsu.edu
Co-Director,
College Health 2000
A Health Promotion Collaborative
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-4701
Phone: 619.594.2869
FAX: 619.594.5613
http://shs.sdsu.edu/ch2000/
Projects affiliated with San Diego State University
--Mark Fulop <fulop@mail.sdsu.edu>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>