The Learning Edge: How Smart Managers and Smart Companies Stay Ahead [Hardcover]

Calhoun W. Wick (Author), Lu Stanton Leon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1993

Today, more than ever before, knowledge is power, and organizations facing global competitive pressure must consistently harness this power and maximize employee learning to survive. "The Learning Edge" responds to this new market reality with a dynamic, concrete approach managers and executives can use to take charge of their own futures, by turning on-the-job experiences into learning opportunities, and discovering how to lead others to grow and learn. This guide shows that the competitive advantange for today's forward-looking managers lies at the point where work and learning converge to produce greater productivity. It explains where the best learning occurs, discloses what managers must learn to add value to their organization, and presents a five-step process for "becoming your best at work" by: mastering the art of intentional learning; performing a learning audit; building developmental learning teams; motivating employees to stretch and take risks; and growing on the job despite the lack of top-level support. It also offers insights into the way top executives are currently using "learning through experience" to develop their managers and executives, and how successful companies, including DuPont, Kodak, Motorola and Hewlett Packard, are creating learning organizations that respond to ever-shortening product and technology cycles and changing consumer preferences.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wick, a fellow at MIT and adjunct professor at the Wharton School, urges on-the-job training through the assignment of increasingly responsible tasks to subordinates. Aided by freelance writer Leon, he rather too repetitively details learning methods for managers themselves that are useful at all organization levels. Self-education occurs whether the structure of a learning environment is formal or informal, he acknowledges, but in the workplace it is essential to supervise and encourage staff members as they learn. The authors contend, validly, that increasing one's skills is the key to corporate success--a conviction voiced by CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in the abundant direct quotations--and they examine specific strategies practiced at Corning, Kodak, Rosenbluth Travel, J. P. Morgan and Motorola. Business managers will find this guide motivating and useful. Newbridge Executive Book Club dual main selection; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

In today's business world, competitive advantage is achieved only when executives, managers, and their organizations are able to harness the power of knowledge by promoting and maximizing intentional learning at work. Based on the authors' rigorous 12-year study, this essential guide provides a dynamic blueprint for implementing intentional learning in the workplace, both individually and company-wide. Drawing on interviews with today's business leaders, The Learning Edge reveals where and how the best learning occurs, and shows what you should be learning to increase your value to your firm and to position yourself for future success. With the aid of charts, graphs, and personal action plans, the book reveals the five S.M.A.R.T. components essential to the learning process, including how you can: Select a learning goal. Map out a detailed learning plan. Act on your plan to make learning part of your daily routine. Review what you've accomplished and evaluate what you've learned. Target your next learning goal. At the same time, The Learning Edge examines the cutting-edge practices of Eastman Kodak, Corning, Motorola, Boeing, J.P. Morgan and other pacesetters to reveal how any company can transform itself into a flexible and responsive learning organization that consistently outthinks and outmaneuvers the competition. Detailed yet far-reaching, The Learning Edge arms both you and your organization with the tools and processes that are critical to individual and corporate success.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 263 pages
• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill (January 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070700826
• ISBN-13: 978-0070700826
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,601,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)