Organizational Development article: The Learning Organization Revisited

As part of one assignment I had to read a Organizational Development themed article and comment upon it. This article was located on the Roosevelt University blog entitled: “The Learning Organization Revisited” I will post my response to the blog below, but I recommend reading the blog and maybe even commenting upon the article itself. Here is my posting which you will find also upon the site:

I like the idea of what respecting others in the workplace to create a learning environment, in my experience so far I have not seen any organization, department or team that meets or exhibits this type of thought process. Usually when it comes to stimulate any type of learning it is done by self-motivated employees or individuals from the training and development department, the managers play no part in the learning process. What managers can do, as mentioned in the video, for assisting employees contributing to the learning process are not instilled in the usual organizational culture and instead are thought of as characteristic of “weak” leadership. Giving a chance for employees to have a debate regarding ideas, policies and procedures even during “open house” discussions that I have seen, are just opportunities for managers to identify troublemakers or squash “challenges” to the current method of “doing things” in regular organizations.

Although I believe organizations that have this type of learning environment established, have managers who openly encourage innovation, and the dissemination of best practices will be highly productive and successful, I have not seen it yet. To do so most organizations need a change to their entire organization’s culture, to reverse the mindsets of CEOs and management staff included that believe creating supportive learning environment in which best practices can be shared and discussion of alternative points of view are not complete wastes of time. If the organization is serious about change, and the management staff is not it is in the best interest of the organization to move forward with personnel changes and recruit leaders who are to committed to this new environment.
I have taken the Learning Organization Survey as recommended by the authors of the article and my organization scaled highest score was in the area of “Time for reflection” at 48.6 I had five of these categories in averaging at 14.3% the others in the low twenties and thirties. This was far above what I expected to score for my organization but quite accurate in various areas.

Reference
Iverson, Kathleen (2012) “The Learning Organization Revisited” February 13, 2012 RU Training @ Roosevelt University in Chicago, Graduate Program in Training & Development, Roosevelt University Retrieved on April 5, 2017 from:
https://rutraining.org/2012/02/13/the-learning-organization-revisited/

Classes done for now, and a lesson in Organizational Development

Finally got done with class for the semester I do not restart until wayyyyyy far into the future. This is due to scheduling irregularities and the fact my University placed my degree programs under a Business section (wing) disrupting all of my classes. This is great material for blogs into the future because I was not told that the “switch” would disrupt my program and it almost added another term to my degree plan!

Keeping all stakeholders informed regarding any Organizational changes and how it will affect them is fundamental in Organizational Development so it is kind of funny or ironic that this is happening with this program! I nearly had my graduation date pushed back three extra months. When dealing with any organization that you invest a huge deal of time and money in like education, you really need to be on top of the people on the administrative side. Some employees feel the effects of their organization’s company culture and it can disrupt what you are trying to do as a customer.

The best thing I can advise when dealing with an organization that may disrupt your plans, whether it is scheduled completion dates to simple task activities always take it seriously, manage your time as if you will need to do double the work to complete it and get everything in writing! When you do so in Organization development you just line yourself up for success, and you also reduce the risk of wasting precious resources like time and money.

I should have some new posts up here soon with links to free downloads, Organizational Development tips and other discussions about various articles which professionals in the field have a hand in dealing with.

Organization Clarity: The “Red Pill” of Cultural Change: Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) On RU Training

This is a great blog written by a former student on the RU Training blog called: The “Red Pill” of Cultural Change: Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI). It discusses using the OCAI to discover how your personality may gear you towards a certain organizational culture. Taking the OCAI is fast and easy but also you may discover as the author states: "why workers and management are not on the same page" in your organization.

You can find the original blog post here:
https://rutraining.org/2017/02/13/the-red-pill-of-cultural-change-organizational-culture-assessment-instrument-ocai/

Organizational Clarity as a Blog is A+ material

Good news I started this blog as part of a final project for my Learning Technologies class at Roosevelt University, and when I created the proposal for the project I wanted something with wide berth and something that would amaze my fellow students and the Professor. Great news it worked! I got an A for the class!

I knew I mentioned tech issues, free downloads commentary about issues facing Organizational Development in my proposal so covering it all in one or two posts I knew was impossible. So writing 30 plus posts was a challenge but alas I got my A! and a successful blog.

I will still, will be posting and talking about OD related issues in the near future. I will hopefully have more designs, logo, for free downloading purposes in the near future so happy reading and thanks to all of you who helped make this blog great!

Organizational Clarity: "Don’t Fall into the Capability Trap: Does your organization work harder or smarter?" article

During my studies at Roosevelt University, I had the chance to look at their Training and Development blog site, which has a lot of great articles done by Staff, Faculty and Students that are themed along the lines of Organization Development. In this article by (Professor) Kathleen Iverson called: “Don’t Fall into the Capability Trap: Does your organization work harder or smarter?” the author discusses how organizations deal with hard times or competition in a violate market. The article gives some great tips that as a professional you can deliver or repeat to any organizational head and sound like a genius or a “go to” person during times like these.

Give the reader five principles to learn by and follow:

• Don’t expect a quick turnaround
• Metrics are important
• Avoid silos of improvement
• Invest in capabilities, even when times are tough
• Invest in capabilities, even when times are good

Here is the link for the article I am talking about:

https://rutraining.org/2016/05/02/dont-fall-into-the-capability-trap-does-your-organization-work-harder-or-smarter/

It has been my experience in the organizations that I have worked for those organizations usually work harder and they simply ignore these principles discussed in the article. The major of the time organizations lay off employees, experienced employees ruining their overall productivity and their Return on Investment (ROI) in the long run. Following these simple principles would allow any organization to bypass such an action and keep the majority of the seasoned employees while investing in the future during these tough, lean times.

Happy reading!

Organizational Clarity: Download.com for your Organization Clarity needs

I mentioned in a post for my Learning Technologies class at Roosevelt University to another student that in response to their wish for more free software to work with when it came to training sessions, video creation, and to enhance presentations they should go to download.com.

Don’t worry this is not a commercial for the site, and I do not like some of the programs on there but it is a site that tests and posts: paid, free to try and free programs to install on your PC or Mac for your own individual usage. From audio recording program to video editing this site literally as it all, plus it has reviews and ratings from the editors of cnet.com and the users of the programs. 

Which such details readily available and online site organization that will make your head spin, you will most likely find what you need when it comes to enhancing that Monday morning presentation that just looks flat. So I recommend giving it a go and check out the download site on Cnet.com, oh, they have apps for mobile too! I have divided the links for your convenience into the various systems they cover:

For PC: http://download.cnet.com/windows/

For Mac: http://download.cnet.com/mac/

For Android:  http://download.cnet.com/android/

For IOS (Apple phone): http://download.cnet.com/ios/

Coming up with the name "Organizational Clarity" the Organizational Development way

When it came to naming this blog there was the idea but not the title, add to that it was just an idea I had for some time, however when the opportunity came to produce a blog for a class project it was like the universe aligned! Part of Organizational Development is learning to use a resource like time, time management is usually the term floated around, but also realizing there is an opportunity to change or create.

That is what has happened here, so as with any program, product, or project you need a “catchy” name to sell not only to the people working on (me) the project but all the stakeholders involved. I admit I had the articles and various topics I wanted to talk about but the name I was at a loss, so I sent out to a group text to collaborate with my wife is a recent Roosevelt University graduate and a friend who is attending DePaul for a degree in the field.

That is what has happened here, so as with any program, product, or project you need a “catchy” name to sell not only to the people working on (me) the project but all the stakeholders involved. I admit I had the articles and various topics I wanted to talk about but the name I was at a loss, so I sent out to a group text to collaborate with my wife is a recent Roosevelt University graduate and a friend who is attending DePaul for a degree in the field.

Although I came up with the majority of titles I needed their feedback to see if the title was again “catchy” to an audience like them, like this blog will, hopefully, be helping. After a while, I came up with “Organizational Clarity” and because it is the goal basically of Organizational Development is to come up with a means to bring clarity to the policies, procedures, and products that an organization wants to implement or streamline for a better Return on Investment. So I got a “go ahead” vote for the title and here we are but I do like to mention some of the titles that did not make it:

• “The ever evolving Organization”
• “The Evolution of organizations”
• “Organizational Development, Organization Evolution”
• “Organization Evolution”
• “OD Happens”
• “OD collective”

As you go through the list you can see how the title would definitely affect how readers of this blog would have reacted if one of those titles were used instead. In Organizational Development it is necessary to collaborate with other professionals, or in this case, I used a small test audience to gain the necessary feedback I needed to produce the result I required. Basically, standard Organizational Development methodology at work so my thanks to Joyce Prosser and Tanya Carranza on their feedback, (always important to recognize contributions!) and I look forward to creating more Organizational Clarity in the near future.