1st Edition
Learning Organizations Developing Cultures for Tomorrow's Workplace
What is a learning organization? What are the advantages of creating one? Why should a company want to become a learning organization? Where does one start?
Learning Organizations: Developing Cultures for Tomorrow's Workplace contains essays by thirty-nine of the most respected practitioners and scholars of this topic. This definitive collection of essays is rich in concept and theory as well as application and example.
Lead authors include Harvard's Rosabeth Moss Kanter, London Business School's Professor Emeritus Charles Handy, and MlT's Fred Kofman and Peter Senge.
The thirty-two essays in this comprehensive collection are presented in four main parts:
1. Guiding Ideas
2. Theories/Methods/Processes
3. Infrastructure
4. Arenas of Practice
INTRODUCTION:
Beginner's Mind
Sarita Chawla
PART ONE: GUIDING IDEAS
1. Communities of Commitment: The Heart of the Learning Organizations
Fred Kofman and Peter Senge
2. Managing the Dream
Charles Handy
3. Ahead of the Wave: Valuing Gender Perspectives in Learning Cultures
Marilynne Anderson
4. Mastering Change
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
5. The Renaissance of Learning in Business
John W. Thompson
6. The Transformational Leader: The Wellspring of the Learning rganization
James Rolls
7. Why Smart Organizations Don't Learn
Lisa J. Marshall, Sandy Mobley, and Gene Calvert
PART TWO: THEORIES/METHODS/PROCESSES
Story:
8. Stories for Learning: Exploring Your Circumstances
Diane Cory and Paula Underwood
9. The Seventh Story: Extending Learning Organizations Far Beyond Business
Dialogues:
10. Dialogue: Capacities and Stories
Judy Brown
11. Mindshift: Strategic Dialgoue for Breakthrough Thinking
12. Language as Action: Linking Metaphors with Organization Transformation
Coaching:
13. Generative Coaching: A Surprising Odyssey
Kendall Murphy
Systems:
14. Building Learning Laboratories to Create More Effective Distributed Decision Making
W. Brian Kreutzer
15. FASTBreak: A Facilitation Approach to Systems Thinking Breakthroughs
David P. Kreutzer
Tools:
16. The DNA of the Learning Organization
Robert Dilworth
17. Wisdom at Work: An Inqurity into the Dimensions of Higher Order Learning
Dr. Joel Levey and Michelle Levey
PART III: INFRASTRUCTURE
18. Learning Communities: An Alternative to the "Expert Model"
Stephanie Ryan
19. Learning Out of Context
Eric Edwards Vogt
0. Vitalizing Work Design: Implementing a Developmental Philosophy
Carol Sanford
21. Development Strategies for the Knowledge Era
Linda E. Morris
22. The Faster Learning Organizations (FLO)
Bob Guns
23. Managerial Practice Fields: Infrastructures of a Learning Organization
Daniel H. Kim
24. Learning as an Organization: A Journey Into Chaos
David R. Schwandt
PART FOUR: ARENAS OF PRACTICE
25. The Challenge of Stewardship: Building Learning Organizations in Healthcare
Alain Gauthier
26. Restructuring Education: Designing Tomorrow's Workplace
John H. Wood
27. Transforming Mental Models through Formal and Informal Learning: A Guide for Workplace Educators
Robert Weintraub
28. Leadership: Quality and the U.S. Navy
Robert L. Masten
Case Studies:
29. Organizational Learning: Medical Metaphor and Corporate Practice
Alan K. Graham30. Shared Values: Nutrients for Learning
Frank Hoffmann and Bill Withers
31. Creating a Learning Organization By Accident
Mary Byrd
32. Beyond Ego to Wisdom: The Eicher Experience
Dinesh Chandra
CONCLUSION
Reflections of Learning from a Gathering
Sarita ChawlaRecommended Reading and Resources
How to Contact Authors, Co-Authors, and Co-Editors
Index
Biography
John Renesch, Sarita Chawla
"In a rich dialogue of many voices, this book explores some key ideas of an emerging new management paradigm. Community, networks, feedback, self-organization, and learning are essential aspects of understanding business organizations as living systems. For managers and entrepreneurs in the twenty-first century this perspective will be vital."
Fritjof Capra, Author, The Turning Point , 06/01/04
"This book will be referenced many times because the depth of material is profound. Learning Organizations: Developing Cultures for Tomorrow's Workplace is a collection of essays for the serious learner involved with creating learning organizations. The essays presented by key practitioners, range from theory to models and applications, and all are thoughtful and insightful. The result for the reader is a richer understanding of what organizations may become. I strongly recommend this collection."
Herbert Rau, Total Quality Manager, National Semiconductor 06/01/04
"The authors of Learning Organizations capture the depth, breadth, vision, and challenges inherent in the struggle for modern corporations to 'learn together as one body.' This book is a magnificent mosaic of experience, theory, and practice."
Kazimierz Gozdz, Editor, Community Building: Renewing Spirit 06/01/04