Meeting with Pam Brown from SDC Sub Committee on the Learning Organization January 11, 2006

Attendees: Pam Brown, VU Human Resources & Director, Organizational Effectiveness Team

SDC Members Attending: Celia, Ann, Rahn (scribe)

From Celia’s Presentation January 2006 to the Strategy and Planning Council

The Council discussed the values associated with a learning organization, an organizational model that uses continual learning (both informal and formal) along with reflection and information sharing to improve skills and knowledge within an organization. The learning organization model is based on the idea that individual learning leads to organizational learning. Transforming the library into a learning organization is one of the prioritized goals of the Strategic Plan, and is assigned to the Staff Development Committee.

For change to occur within an organization, it is important for staff to understand why change needs to occur (for us, change is needed to strengthen ties between the library and the university's mission so that we are identified as a vital part of the mission and the university's goals). For a learning organization to succeed, it is also important for staff to understand and accept a common set of values. Do all library staff operate under the same set of values? What are the signs that we do or don't?

Our communication to Pam Brown about the meeting

Thanks again for embarking on this new adventure with us! As representatives from the SDC, four of us will meet with you next week. They are: Celia Walker, Ann Ercelawn, Rachel Vacek, and myself.

In the first section below are guiding questions for our discussion next week. These are questions numbered one, two and three which I shared with you recently. They are not intended to limit the conversation but rather to help us have some structure as we gather information.

The second set of questions are from Library's Strategy and Planning (S&P) Committee. They requested that these be kept private to the SDC yet agreed about the benefit of including them in our discussion. I think these questions are critical in understanding the S&P's concerns as well as what they understand the initial issues to be.

Clearly, the SDC and S&P members have varying understandings about what a Learning Organization is. I hope we'll be able to address this so that we are able to meet each person where they are to move forward. I know this won't be easy but the potential rewards are great!

SDC's Learning Organization Questions

When developing this skill or behavior in a diverse organization, what have you found to be the most effective method? How do we begin and then how do we proceed forward with implementation?

What are some of the most effective ways for these skills to be taught? Please recommend resources (print, electronic, workshops, conferences, etc.) and key people.

What are the best two ways to begin this process?

What don't we know that we don't know enough to ask?

S&P's Learning Organization Questions

How do we start disseminating information about learning organizations to the staff when they are burned out with process?

What do we do with staff who just want to be left alone?

Is it of value to have everyone participate to the extent that they can?

What rewards should be offered for people who want to think actively about improving their work and the work of the library?

What can management do to provide a positive example for the staff?

The following are discussion notes from our conversation with Pam Brown

Initially, she had questions: How did this idea begin? Story about article/American Libraries/Flo copy/Jody Combs & using it in LITS; whole Strategy & Planning Council has seen the article and supports the idea

How do we lead people to want to do this rather than it being something that is “done” to them?

What are the goals that the Library sees as benefits for moving this way?

• Move to systematic thinking
• Having shared values and working together as a system
• Help people deal with change – to cope with it better and help stress
• To be more of a continuous learning/training organization
• Making progress in the organization to embrace change, take risks, be open to making errors, move away from analysis paralysis

Pam has past experience at another university. The University President said that The Fifth Discipline was her favorite book (by Peter Senge) so everyone adopted it. They moved towards more systems thinking and open dialog. This is a complex topic and a science. This doesn’t come easily and is a deep topic. They presented it campus wide – after 1.5 years, a new Provost whose favorite book was “The Balanced Scorecard.” So the emphasis shifted. Pam thinks that engaging in this discussion benefited them. It was the “management technique du jour” so that was the downside. This is not something that happens overnight. It’s not prescriptive and is complex to implement. You can’t give people a list of what to do. This requires a conceptual mental shift. It’s not a step-by-step process. She also recommends the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, of which she brought some copies. It talks about how you get started. This is a metamorphosis process.

Pam’s idea of a strategy on this – you MUST have leadership on board. Don’t want to do a big hoopla so that it gets lost – it’s not to be thought of as an initiative. “This is exciting, don’t you want to be involved? It’s not a mandate or an order. Lead people to it. Have teams do research on this on how to implement this – attract high performers with lots of energy. Involve the internal thought leaders and get them involved. Make sure groups have fun, are charged up. Have it be enthusiastic. How you present it is critical. No matter how far we go, it will be a benefit to us and help us be more successful. Right now we are trying to improve – it doesn’t matter how far we go but we will benefit from it.

We talked about journal clubs as a way – start with LO as the first topic.

How can we most effectively tie together our 3 charges for SDC (Proj Mgmt, Mtg Mgt & LO)? The Fifth Discipline does address these two other ideas, too.

Also, you can get the right people together to energize the groups.

The LO is not prescriptive like Proj Mgt and Mtg Mgt – LO can be viewed at the opposite of these. There aren’t rules to apply to LO. Part of LO is “Dialog” with a capital D. ”The best ideas will come with open flow, allow silence, building on ideas, not knocking ideas down.” This can be great fun or drive people nuts. These other two are covered in the Fieldbook.

Have fun groups to generate the ideas on this concept. Have SDC bring in experts, communicate plans on activities. Develop personal mastery. Facilitating sessions “what motivates me, gets me out of bed in the a.m.? There are 5 Disciplines in the books that give topics to begin with. Develop 5 discussion groups. Then bring participants together at the end in a retreat.

If some people don’t want to participate, then the energy of it may bring them forward later. Even if they didn’t actively participate, if you figure out a way to involve people even if they aren’t aware of it. The ideal is to engage people and get their contribution.

The Five Disciplines are:

• Shared Vision
• Personal Mastery
• Team Learning
• Systems Thinking
• Mental Models

Is LO the best concept for us? Pam thinks so, but we will need to be the judges of that.

Maybe we should look at this not-as-a-destination but as a process and that what ever progress we make is good. We are trying to engage people and generate interest and participation. Pam says just paying attention in any organization makes a difference. So this is good.

How would we ID expert speakers? Have the groups do this and do the research on this. There is a Society for Organizational Learning. But there should be local talent. Mark Cannon may have ideas – Celia has a call into him. There is a TN Chapter of ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) or maybe SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management). Could be scientist who did work on systems thinking.

Would it be useful to learn what the Medical Center is doing? (see this link for their program http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/index.html?ID=3642) Everything they are doing is transferable but was developed specifically for a hospital setting. It was the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People meets the balanced scorecard. Service, growth, finance, quality and people were the key targets to be made more effective. (referenced book by Quince Studer Hard Wiring Excellence). The basic concept is that some behaviors you do over and over, this is how hard wiring occurs. It’s how you interact with co-workers and about being happy at work; it also focuses on how you treat a patient which is transferable to how we treat customers.

How can management provide a positive example? By participating in the groups. This is a mixed bag – if they come, some people will be inhibited. If they don’t come, it will be viewed as them not being involved. If they do come, it needs to be as participants not as “leaders”.

Journal club idea was good – nothing came out of it afterwards. We will need follow-up later so the impact of the group will move forward to benefit the organization.