Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009...5:15 pm
“Hallways” (ADLT 623 Reflection #1)
Another semester and two more classes. This fall I’m taking Educational Evaluation and Organizational Learning. I sat down with my texts to start the reading for Organizational Learning with the skepticism that I always have for texts and treatises. I’m a slow reader and thus the time it takes me to get through a chapter rich with intellectual verbiage and verse exceeds that which takes most. Thus, the feeling I have when I open the cover of a text for the first time is one of being overwhelmed at what is ahead. This semester, I had a very pleasant surprise, Nancy Dixon’s book, Organizational Learning Cycle; How We can Learn Collectively. I know…sounds corny that I’m praising a text book, but so far, this one is truly an exception to my text trepidation. It is intellectual, yet completely accessible! Compared to my normal pace of reading texts, I feel like I’m speed reading Dixon’s words and not having to back up. YAY!!!
Chapter three “The Hallways of Learning” stuck a cord with me relating to the concept of fostering collective meaning and how it is accomplished. With each concept she introduced, I though, ‘this is something we need to do at work’. Currently my office meets formally about two times a year in our Division wide meeting. We each do a bit of a dog and pony show about our programs and then we discuss items like the upcoming blood drive, the access problem at the front door, or how we need to each be considerate of each other and keep the break area clean. The intention to foster collective learning and knowledge sharing does not exist. We each, in the minutia of our respective programs, are myopic in our vision. I’m excited to be learning concepts of knowledge sharing and meaning making and meaningful ways to foster or actualize those concepts.
In the more literal sense, the physical structure of my office does not foster hallways of learning. I was struck by the theory I’d seen but not recognized in other organizations. For example, Capital One. I’ve been in their building and dismissed their short walls and hanging signs indicating the functional grouping of individuals into certain areas…the round tables in the quarter floor centers.. and the colorful and open break areas. I dismissed these things as being ‘corporate’ and ‘institutional’. Wow.. there was real purpose behind the madness and real symmetry between culture and physical space. Who knew! My office is an old row house turned office space… beautiful offices with doors, tall ceilings and shotgun hallways. The one communal space is a conference room on the first floor that collects dust and discarded equipment waiting to be recycling. Ok, that is a little exaggerated but true for the most part.
Dixon will have a big impact on my office, of this I’m sure. I’m actually looking forward to continuing to read. Thanks Nancy Dixon!
3 Comments
September 7th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I also found myself examining my own work environment and comparing it against the organizational learning cycle Dixon outlines for all three organizations. I tried to fill in the four steps in the cycle with actions and processes we employ. In my initial opinion, there is definite room for improvement. I work for an organization which is supposed to foster learning for adults; however, it seems that we fail to do so for ourselves. As we discussed in our first class, I believe established traditional cultures have to be revolutionized per se in order to shift to a learning organization. Since it was an established leader/family representative who initiated the transition to learning organization, “revolution” may not be the correct term because it implies that this shift is instantaneous and without contest. Dixon clearly highlights the speed bumps to the transition in turning obsolete modes of organizational structure. The leaders at Johnsonville saw the value for the organization as a whole for increasing employee accountability, morale, and empowerment. I believe that the administrator of a non-learning organization must initiate the change, but it has to be a multilayered approach and one that is embraced by all units within the org.
I thought that the logistical placement of the employee breakroom in the Chapparral plant was particularly telling. I have worked in environments where the training room was literally a closet with training software on PC. The breakroom was in the very back of the building away from the manager’s office. It seemed that the “method to the madness” you referred to was simply a matter of logistical convenience in this case.
Thanks for sharing,
Yovhane
September 7th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
It’s interesting that you had some trepidation before starting to read Dixon’s Org Learning Cycle. I had something of a similar feeling. I was thinking that it might be laborious read, but was also pleasantly surprised. I felt quite engaged in the reading starting from the preface. I enjoyed the overview and elucidation of individual learning, although this approach was mostly a review. It was fascinating to move into organizational learning and how Dixon made the connection between individual and organizational learning. I also find Dixon’s writing very accessible.
I was also struck by the idea of ‘hallways of learning.’ I don’t have such an immediate application as you describe with your work setting. It seems like you have some challenges both in the physical office space and perhaps conceptual or relational setup of the organization. It will be interesting to see how you go about introducing some ideas for broadening the exchange of information and dialogue. I guess it depends on the openness of different people of your org to experiment with new avenues of learning.
I was struck by how in the example the Siemens factory in NC there was concern whether the use of common space was inappropriate, but the research showed it was used significantly for sharing info with fellow workers. It seems like there is a traditional view that we should work on our own (yes and also in some formal team/collaborative ways), but perhaps we don’t realize how much a communal setting can contribute to or enhance our work. In my own case, when I have been working on something individually for a while, I often relish the opportunity to bounce some of my ideas off someone else and it’s not always with someone who may even be working together formally on the same project. I can see having such an opportunity leading to some spontaneous and creative dialogue. Perhaps it’s the aspect that Dixon refers to in individual learning – when we speak we somehow cognitively organize what we know… Creating more opportunities to speak in the hallways could well lead to a more fertile, creative, engaged culture in an organization. I look forward to learn more how to facilitate such settings or climate.
September 7th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Ed, I just spent quite a while writing a comment over a period of time and when I went to submit, it vanished into the ether! Oh, my! Where did that go?
I’ll start over… (first I’ll try to submit this!) Maybe it’s in your que for approval since it doesn’t show up yet. I think and hope that’s where it is!
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