Customer Reviews

Learning Practices: Assessment and Action for Organizational Improvement

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How to build the learning capability of an organization? Some researchers and consultants describe in details how learning organization should work. They advise to shape an organization according to their prescription. Approach presented by Dr. Anthony DiBella in his book is different. The first step in developing learning capability of a team or a company is to assess how it learns. After that we will be able to describe our "best possible" learning profile of the organization and start to make changes. This approach is rooted in OD theory and consulting practice. I would recommend this book becouse it is written for practitioners. DiBella presents very usuful tools to diagnose learning of a team, organization unit or even entire firm or institution. He also describes what to do when we have done our assessment. This book is of high value for people who would like to build or strengten the learning capabilities of an organization or a team.

I purchased this book as part of an organizational change class that the author was teaching at Boston University. As part of the class we had to assess a team using the framework provided in the book. I found the project and the book valuable and practical. The team I surveyed found the process useful too. I look forward to trying to use the framework in the future.

This book emphasizes the importance of developing learning organizations and then proceeds to outline a 3 step approach to actually doing so in your own organization. The chapters are very specific and lay out the process so just about anyone could analyze where their organization is to start (the first step), where they'd like to go and how to get there.

For knowledge officers, this book is a must read: it's easy to follow and clearly laid out with enough charts and examples to lead you through the process.