Review by John Baldoni for Amazon.com
Organizational Learning Made Accessible
and Practical
The learning organization
is one of those terms that people like to use but often really don't know
what it means. Well now help is here! Look no further than The Manager's Pocket
Guide to Organizational Learning. In fact, I had been looking for such a book
when happily I came across this one. And it's a delight. Author Stephen Gill
boils the concepts down into neat, easily and easily actionable ideas.
Gill, a noted consultant with three decades worth of experience, creates a
tripartite prism for coming to grips with organizational learning: individual,
team, and whole organization. After deftly explaining that while learning
begins with individuals, it is the application of that learning as it spreads
to groups and whole organizations that gives rise to organizational learning.
Learning, as Gill states, is imperative for organizations to grow and thrive.
The power of this book echoes in its strategies for learning, which Gill groups into his three frameworks. In "Strategies for Individual Learning," we discover the importance of the personal learning style as well as work?life balance. "Strategies for Group Learning" emphasizes alignment with organizational goals and the importance of creating a shared vision. Action learning is also integral to this strategy; adults often learn best by doing. In "Strategies for Whole Organization Learning," there is an exploration of the causal loop to show how feedback reinforces the learning process. Gill also includes a case study on the World Café process that provides just enough detail for consultants (internal or external) to include it in their arsenal of knowledge tools. It's a powerful resource that integrates questions with discovery as a means of making connections for performance growth and improvement. Benchmarking, too, plays a strategic role because it enables individuals to learn from example as well as evaluate the virtues and practicality of their own practices.
A subsequent chapter on evaluation opens with reflective questions that organizational learners need to ask themselves: What are we doing? How well are we doing it? How can it be improved? Gill then offers tips on measurement and a good piece of advice: involve customers in the process. Who better to evaluate an organization's ability to learn that its customers; after all, as consumers they are critical (if not ultimate) judges of organizational effectiveness? The organizational self?audit at the conclusion of the book is invaluable. The audit itself seeks to measure individual, team, and organization processes as a means of gaining a holistic picture of the learning process.
Gill also includes chapters on communications and knowledge management, both essential to the proliferation of and nurturing of organizational learning. Key sections also contain assessments and action planning tips for those who want to improve their learning capacities as well as those of their teams and organizations.
Don't be put off by the
series title "pocket guide." There's nothing small in this book
except size. Organizational Learning is of big ideas that will enable
individuals to grow, teams to develop, and organizations to thrive by
following the principles of organizational learning. It's a must?have
for anyone interested in this vital and important topic.
John Baldoni, author of Personal Leadership: Taking Control of Your Work Life (Elsewhere Press, 2001), has been consulting with organizations on their communication and management development needs for over 20 years.