5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Practical Approach to Organizational Learning -- Finally!, February 15, 2001
This review is from: The Power of Collaborative Leadership:: Lessons for the Learning Organization (Paperback)
This is the first book on OL that I would feel comfortable passing on to a business manager. Most of the others I've read are more geared toward researchers in the area. But the work is thoroughly researched and referenced, so even researchers will find the book a good lesson in how to write for the business audience! The summaries of key contributions in the field (esp Argyris, Schon, Senge) at the beginning would be a great primer for someone new to this area of research, and the practical advice in the later part of the book in terms of questions to answer at each stage of going forward with your OL effort were highly appropriate.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A strong voice from a practitioner in a new book format, January 1, 2001
This review is from: The Power of Collaborative Leadership:: Lessons for the Learning Organization (Paperback)
The books is innovative as it reports not only success stories about the learning organisation, but also failures in trying to use its concepts, methods and tools. It is a must read for consultants, practitioners and researchers facing the challenges of learning, change management and leadership, in a compelling and different format (interviews).
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gut wrenching and deeper than Shakespeare :-) but a must read before embarkng on any change initiative, June 27, 2007
This review is from: The Power of Collaborative Leadership:: Lessons for the Learning Organization (Paperback)
Our friendConrad Anker, a modern day explorer, just summitted MT Everest as a part of a documentary of the 1924 attempt by George Mallory. Iva Wilson and Bert Frydman are explorers of a different kind. As readers, we get to walk with them as they scale their mountains, hills, and valleys of implementing organizational change using organizational learning (OL) tools.
I had a gut reaction to this book. The tribal stories as told by Iva and Bert allow the reader to experience a mock simulation of what it's like to lead and live in times of revolutionary change. One gets to feel the power, the thrill, the fear, the frustration, the pain, and responsibility carried by leaders spearheading change. The reader gets an inside out look at the processes, how they evolved, adapted, disappeared, and impacted Iva and Bert's thinking and action. Rarely do we get to participate in a process from the inside out. We get to here out loud the assumptions, the questions, the barriers, and challenges from a leader's perspective.
Their honesty smacked me in the face with my own behaviors in a recent 6 year change process. I appreciated the dichotomy of visionary and pragmatic leadership styles because they were made explicit and represent what we all face as leaders - the different perceptions and approaches in enacting vision. They were willing to expose their mental models for our learning, so critical to beginning a change effort.
Dixon's OL definition: "intentional use of learning processes at the individual, group, and system level to continuously transform the organization..." was poignant. (p. 47) However, I was irked at the notion that OL and bottom-line are often viewed as diametrically opposed. I would argue if you have a dysfunction work environment, you probably have higher health care costs, lost production, stress related impact across the board, unhappy families, higher turnover... OL should be the prerequisite to maximizing human potential and bottom-line results. It was disturbing that there were so many negative external forces pushing against Iva and Bert and yet, OL and its proponents seemed to become scapegoats for major systemic causes outside their control..
The interviews of other powerful leaders highlight the need for (1) core values as underpinning of any vision, (2) genuine care and concern for people and their aspirations in aligning personal values with that of the organization, (3) the need to create shared leadership by giving away power to those that are capable, and (4) to be able to be the bridge between old and new systems. The authors summarize their short list of an effective OL leader. The reader is asked to create a learning journey with an adaptive map. The questions posed offer a comprehensive analysis for more effective implementation.
I would recommend this book for anyone embarking on a change initiative, leader or employee. This book is worth reading, studying by chapter, using for individual or organizational analysis, and for assessment on multiple levels - individual, organizational, and systemic. Thank you for allowing me to learn, feel, and be challenged by your learning.
Becky H. Smith, Ed.D., Systems Management and Research, Inc.
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