Building an Innovative Learning Organization

Chapter 8Managing Your Organization's Learning Operation

Sarder Framework: Building the Learning Organization

You've got to eat while you dream. You've got to deliver on short-range commitments, while you develop a long-range strategy and vision and implement it…walking and chewing gum if you will. Getting it done in the short-range, and delivering a long-range plan, and executing on that.¹

—Jack Welch

Managing your learning plans is a little like managing a family. Every day brings innumerable things that need to be done—get the kids off to school and yourself off to work, keep the refrigerator stocked, plan and prepare meals, do the laundry, oversee the homework, pay the bills…and then there's getting Jennie to soccer and Sam to his piano lesson, taking the car in to see why it keeps stalling, finding a sitter for Saturday night, meeting with the kids' teachers, planning a vacation…the tasks seem endless. It takes careful management and attention to detail to make sure everything gets done, done on time, and done right. It's hard to do unless you have a system.

Developing and carrying out an organization-wide learning plan requires an even larger number of tasks and involves large numbers of people. It also involves enormous amounts of information and a great deal of technology. Without attentive oversight and effective systems, your learning operation can quickly become ...