Reimagining the Learning Organization – The learning culture

In our final, official session, we will reflect on the assignments between sessions. We will explore what worked and what did not…, as well as what to continue to try.

Then, we will dive deeply in what is a learning culture, introduced in the previous session. Participants will have a chance to rate their own organizations and teams using culture inventory.

We will explore other important components, such as trust and collaboration, and how to foster them seamlessly into a learning organization. Participants will determine the more detailers, this time focused on how to avoid those undermining factors of trust and collaboration.

Nigel will introduce the Seven Principles of the Learning Organization and explore how they can be tweaked to support the work participants do in their own contexts.

Finally, taking all the lessons learned from all three session, participants will summarize what they have learned and develop a proposal they can pitch to their CLO, their CEO, and company Board. Participants will test their pitches out to see how they may fare— ending with an action plan for transfer completely to their work environments.

Reimagining the Learning Organization – The model in action

After debriefing the homework assigned, Nigel will explore with participants how the Organizational Learning Model works in practice. He will share the various factors that influences its impact and details the sundry extraneous elements that influence an organization’s evolution as it develops and grows.

Next, participants will look outside the organization to identify what can inform, support, and affect their companies efforts. They will also explore the derailers… factors both in and out of the organization that can undermine the org. learning process. Finally, participants will explore the impact vulture has, as well.

As we wrap up this second session, participants will engage in several activities. The first will facilitate them through a process exploring how the model and external factors affect their own organizations. The second will enable peer-to-peer learning and feedback. And finally, we will begin a brief simulation as we send folks off to apply what they learned between this and the final session.

Reimagining the Learning Organization – Introduction, context setting, and the model

In this opening session, Nigel will share the basis and origin of Reimagining the Learning Organization. Participants will engage in several reflection exercises to explore why we need to rethink learning in the organizational setting, why it is important, why now, and what should happen next.

Stepping back, Nigel explores what orgnanizational learning is all about, its history and how it emerged. He will also share several examples for why it failed 20 years ago… and why we need to bring back an evolved version now.

Participants will experience three short case studies to show how it operates today and then engage in an analysis of their own organizations.

Finally, Nigel will present the model is depth, asking attendees to take what they learned in session one, and apply it in their own contexts.

The Building Leadership Capability Series – Action Planning

How do you create a plan of action for leadership in your organization? Whether it is taking what you have learned here and applying it, or putting together an action plan to specifically reconcile a problem you face, this session is all about strategic and tactical planning. And remember, planning isn’t everything! You have to be ready to throw the plan away and improvise… So, a bit of improvisation is included, as well. At the end of this session, you will have an action planning tool you can use for your own leadership initiatives, or for any initiative you manage or lead.

The Building Leadership Capability Series – Risk Management

A risk is simply a potential problem. We will explore the different types of risks you may encounter. We will also give you a risk management tool for categorizing and identifying different risks, as well as a set of strategies for identifying as many of them as possible. We will analyze risks from the perspective of their potential impact, as well as their respective likelihood to happen. You will leave this session wondering why you weren’t a worry wart before! And also realizing how good risk management actually makes life less stressful.

The Building Leadership Capability Series – Increasing your Presence in the Organization

Many leaders imagine that speaking the loudest or most often is the best way to increase their impact on those around them. This is exerting hard power. Why don’t they listen to me?!? People have to listen! Am I chopped liver? However, you will have most impact by exercising the soft power that you build rather than assume. This session will encourage you to think hard about your presence and devise a strategy to be more impactful and acknowledged in your community. This will take account of the context that you operated within. Find out how you balance soft and hard power. Work out a personal strategy to increase your presence. Make sure that you are fully seen!

The Building Leadership Capability Series – Organizational Politics

Politics is defined as two or more people “in a room.” Politics is agnostic. It is essential. It is how we humans engage. By itself, it is neither good, nor bad. But it certainly can yield bad things and be amoral, or moral. In other words, there is an ethical component to politics. This session looks at the more Machiavellian side of the leadership algorithm. No… this session is not “how to manipulate others…” But, it could be. Heh, heh, heh…

The Building Leadership Capability Series – Change

Unfortunately, we are too often burdened by those pesky humans who must, or better yet, willingly, follow leaders. To get them aligned… and to get them so in a more intrinsic way— a self-determined way— we must put change management practices in place. This session provides such processes. Because emotions matter. Change is ever present. Some good. Some bad. Some unseen. But, given your responsibilities, you must find ways to make change more amenable to those around you. How…? We have a few ideas.

The Building Leadership Capability Series – Action Learning

Again… with that learning thing…? Yep! This is about working with your peers to solve problems and commit to new behaviors. This is also about building practice and reflection into what you do. Why? So, you can find what works and what doesn’t as quickly as you can. So you can put into practice solutions, adjusting them as needed. Action learning is all about being agile and nimble is a complex world.

The Building Leadership Capability Series – Systems Thinking

How do we do that? By getting functional leaders—you—  to think about cause and effect. To get you to explore nuance and how all these different factors come together to get you where you are and where you are going. We will look at toilets, sewage systems, and toilet paper… all excellent platforms for learning how systems work, and how complex systems affect all around us.

The Building Leadership Capability Series – Organizational Learning

Hey— this is a leadership program? Why are we talking about learning? Because leadership is ultimately about solving complex problems or realizing complex opportunities. Organizational learning is how we leverage the company as a system for continuous learning to better equip ourselves, increase efficiency, and maximize the likelihood for success.

The Building Leadership Capability Series – Creating a More Intrinsically and Meaningful Work Environment

This session explores how can we provide the structure, the purpose & meaning, and the sense of belonging for those around us as we engage teams toward solving complex or wicked problems (or opportunities). In other words, how do we influence the environment motivationally to support the needs of those around us so they authentically work together with us to solve the problems we face.