Learning Organizations & Public Relations

Introduction

• Learning Organizations

• Strategic Planning Models

• Community Involvement

Learning Objectives

• Learning Community

• Learning organization presentation

• Discuss your articles & community involvement

• Learn about groupware & strategic planning

• Develop a meeting agenda for next week

Self Introductions

• Past

• Present

• Future

Learning Organizations

• Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge (1990)

• “A learning organization is a place where people are continually discovering how they create their reality.”

• Innovate an invention to replicate at a meaningful scale and cost.

Through learning, we:

• Re-create ourselves

• Become able to do things we never were able to do before

• Re-perceive the world and our relationship to it

• Extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life

Components of Learning Organizations

• Systems thinking

• Personal mastery

• Mental models

• Building shared vision

• Team learning

The Fifth Discipline --> Systems Thinking

Learning Organizations

• Lifelong learning

• Never arrive

• Always in a state of practicing

• Becoming better and worse

The Laws of the Fifth Discipline• Today’s problems come from yesterday’s “solutions”• The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back• Behavior grows better before it grows worse• The easy way out usually leads back in• The cure can be worse than the disease• Faster is slower• Cause & effect are not closely related in time and space• Small changes can produce big results – but the areas of

highest leverage are often the least obvious• You can have your cake and eat it too – but not at once• Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small

elephants• There is no blame

Systems Thinking

• The conceptual cornerstone that underlies all of the five learning disciplines

• A discipline for seeing wholes• Seeing structures that underlie complex

situations• Seeing interrelationships rather than linear

cause and effect chains.• Seeing processes of change rather than

snapshots

SovietArms

Threat to Americans

Need to BuildUS Arms

USArms

Threat to Soviets

Need to BuildUSSR Arms

Reinforcing feedback

• The engine of growth and decline.

• Small changes amplify causing accelerated growth or decline.

Balancing Feedback

• Goal-oriented behavior

• Limits growth or decline

• Resistance to change is a balancing process

Delays

• Effects on variables takes time.

• Consequences of actions occur gradually.

Personal Mastery

• The Spirit of the Learning Organization

• Organizations learn only through individuals who learn

• Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning, but without it no organizational learning can occur

• Personal Vision

Creative Tension

Structural Conflict

Mental Models

• Why Best Ideas Fail

• Conflict with deeply held internal images of how the world works

• Mental models determine how we take action

• Mental models are so powerful - because they affect what we see

Shared Vision

• A Common Caring• A shared vision is a vision that many

people are truly committed to and it reflects their own personal vision

• Helps establish overarching goals• Provides a rudder to keep the learning

process on course when stresses develop

Team Learning

• The fundamental learning unit

• Alignment - necessary condition before empowering the individual will empower the whole team

Alignment Diagrams

Microsoft Research Themes

• Knowledge management

• Learning is valued in the corporate culture

• Self-directed constructivist learning

• Systematic process

• Moments of magic for interaction

KnowledgeKnowledgeManagementManagement

Effective Effective organizationsorganizationsPeoplePeoplePeoplePeople

PeoplePeopleInformationInformation

DataData

Effective Use of Effective Use of Intellectual AssetsIntellectual Assets

InformationInformationPeoplePeople

Microsoft Intranet Web Site

BusinessProcess

Constructivist Learning (Brunner & Dewey)

• Smart

• Get the right things done

• Hard working

• Passion for technology

• WOW

MSTE Systematic Process

Interaction Moments of Magic

Teacher

Colleague

Friend Author

Expert

Mentor

Office Assistants

Projects Exhibiting Themes

• Continuous Learning

• Microsoft Technical Education (MSTE)

• Product Support Services (PSS)

• Windows Media Events (WinME)

Continuous Learning

• Microsoft Skills Assessment Tool

• Customer centric learning organization

CL Competency Framework

Microsoft Strategic Vision

Microsoft Strategic Initiatives

Performance Objectives

Responsibility Clusters

Competencies

Organization Level

Individual Level

Microsoft Technical Education

• Support business groups

• Interface monthly publication

• Infocenters

• Online courses

• Talks and events

• Systematic process

MSTE Activities Attended/Accessed

Percent Accessed Type of Event

85% Classroom Courses

66% Live Talks

41% Online Webzine

39% Online Talks

39% Online Courses

27% Infocenters

26% Events/Workshops

Product Support Services

• Expert Roundtables– Teleconferences– NetPodium internal– New technology discussions NDA

• Support Webcasts– Support topics– NetPodium

Windows Media Events (WinMe)

– Service provider to Microsoft groups– Live streaming events– Net Presenter & MITT– NetPodium

Future Research

• Learning inventory

• Satisfaction and effectiveness of learning systems

• Value of learning to the organization

Product

Brand

Brand Equity

OrganizationalLearning

IntellectualCapital

IntellectualEquity

Conclusions

• Learning is distributed & self-directed

• Large investment in learning

• Learning providers are collaborating via MSDL Task Force

• Internal learning objects may have value to partners & customers

Article Discussion

• How does your article relate to Senge’s concepts?

• What is the role of community involvement in a learning organization?– Soliciting public opinion– Identifying community values– Assessing community satisfaction

Self-Directed Learning Activity

• Search on the Internet to learn about how groupware can be or is used in education.

• Look for models for using groupware in strategic planning

• www.groupsystems.com

PR Planning Session Agenda

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