The E-Learner

Issue No. 15

Published by

© European Consortium for the Learning Organisation.

All rights reserved.

Welcome to the fifteenth edition of The E-Learner, ECLO's electronic newsletter for members.

As always, we welcome contributions from members, as it is impossible to keep on top of the wealth of information on the World Wide Web on topics of interest to you all.

For your ongoing reference The E-Learner will be archived in the members' zone of our web site.

Editor: Brian Taylor

Editorial

This issue, through an article from Roberto Lorusso, CEO of Sud Sistemi Srl, Bari, Italy offer a religious insight and perspective to all those traveling the journey of the Learning Organisation.

BookWatch returns, following the journey by Member Bill Godfrey from mainland Australia to Tasmania. Along with other ‘regular’ features, such as Horror Scopes, Web Flash, Web-based Resources, Member’s Update etc.. We also have a reflection from John Dunn on the Munich Conference to set the mood for Lisbon, plus utterances from Drucker and Honey and the best kept secret from the CIA.

An Extra Ordinary Day in the Life of Roberto Lorusso

Today is the ideal day to write this article to the E-Learner. God has recently reminded me (because of a slight heart trouble) that I have to stop working with my arms and I should begin to reflect a lot and to place my trust in Him more and more.

One day I read this sentence: "If you want to make God laugh, confide to Him your plans".

How much wisdom in a few words! We worry about a lot of things, without knowing whether those are the ones the Lord wants us to do. Perhaps they are, but the difference between ours, and the Almighty’s pleasure, is that we do these things, just to please ourselves (for our own "ego"). We often forget that He enables us to realise them, through his gifts.

Indeed, vain glory is nothing but thinking that our successes are only the fruit of our competencies and knowledge. I could tell you that today is an extraordinary day, because I am doing a sound reflection, which will enable me to be in good health and to do the right things in the eyes of God.

I am married with five children and my wedding celebrated by the Archbishop of Bari, Italy.

When both my wife Angelica and I were less than 23 years old. We had three children, Sergio (now, 20 years), Paola (16 years), Sara (14 years), in the first 6 years of marriage. Later on, we became different as a married couple. An intense working life, our children became quite neglected, middle-class behaviours with our families and friends, Christian virtues put aside, no desire to have other children (because we had already done our part). The di presents: Simona (4 years) and Emanuela (1 year). I always say that they are the best investment for my old age, provided that He decides to grant me a long time. In the meantime, I am enlightens, when I look at their children’ faces.

Generosity, unlike selfishness, is a virtue to be necessarily lived in small context, such as family; before being promoted in a larger heterogeneous environment, such as a company or organisation.

In the family it is possible to experiment a lot with those virtues necessary to an entrepreneur and/or leader.

For example, delegation and consequently the relevant confidence is typical of a father, towards his adolescent children. The ability to listen, comprehend and guide by example, are some of those ‘soft’ competencies. A good father should have the ability to mentor his children, to enable them to make responsible, independent choices in their life. The same process happens in the company, even if it is more difficult, due to mature relationships and a reluctance to change.

In this context, as with the relationship with a grown-up son, other competencies are added such as sharing one’s own tasks and development goals. Enterprises, which do not develop, are primarily those that have given up loving the desire to improve and the risks related to accepting more demanding challenges. Company welfare and economical calm bring the company itself to live in a condition of tepidity, which brings it to its failure. The same happens in the family, which decides to live in its own comforts and wealth, forgetting all that a wife and husband made before getting married, when they accepted important challenges and had ambitious objectives; such as to create a family and look for a job in order to do it. A challenge, for a family, could be to decide to become larger, bringing to life a new child, who for sure is a source of great learning (for those who wanted him) and of a life, which does not fail.

Editor’s Comments

For those Members wishes to know more, why not contact Roberto direct on > lorussor@sudsistemi.it < or visit Sud Sistemi Srl website on > http://www.sudsistemi.it < for more information Learning Organisations and HAROLD (Habits ARousing out of Organisational Learning Development)

Peter F. Drucker – All Development is Self-Development

Drucker, in the above five words, gives us a reminder that what ever we do to help other people to learn and however well intentioned we are, both the process and the outcome belong to them.

It is impossible to do anyone else's learning for them. We can and should help, but they have to do it and willingly. Check out Peter’s Foundation site for some useful resources on > http://www.pfdf.org < or have a good read of "The Effective Executive", Pan Business/ Management Publications, ISBN 0 330 02507 4

Peter Honey – Willing and Able

"Recently my wife and I celebrated a significant anniversary by going to a music festival in Venice.

Besides going to the concerts, you could sign up for morning lecture walks and we chose one, more or less at random from a list, called Ruskin's Venice. We had little idea of what to expect and had only the sketchiest prior knowledge of John Ruskin. Well, within the space of three hours our delighted lecturer was calling us 'Ruskinians' as we made yet another detailed examination of a stone carving on the Doge's Palace and speculated about the happiness or otherwise of the fourteenth century stone mas Steve Harding ( Steve.Harding@uce.ac.uk ) opened up the session with a brief synopsis about the Munich Conference and proceeded to get everyone to draw a picture of how they saw themselves. Each individual was encouraged to share their picture with everyone else and give an explanation of what they had drawn and why. Groups were then formed so that individual drawings could be combined to form a logo, which would represent the group. The purpose of this exercise was to get people to think and express core values and demonstrate how people can understand each other through pictures and words.

Steve also concluded the evening with the feedback session, which was the last session at Munich. We had taken a digital picture of our A3 board and reproduced it on an overhead slide.

Anita Pickerden ran a workshop on "Patterns, Perceptions and Mental Models". This was based upon the session run by Stuart English in Munich. The group was involved in discussions and then asked to draw individually a picture of what a computer meant to them. The purpose of this was to illustrate how mental models can help form patterns with sensory information that can act as templates to focus through and enable people to enrol in a common idea.

For my part I used one of the techniques that acts as a ice-breaker, which I introduced at Munich.

The audience were asked to use a descriptive word based on the first letter of their first name to introduce themselves with i.e., John = Jolly John, Steve = Solid Steve. Etc…

Couple this as a memory technique it enables people to quickly put a face to a name for the future. My second task was to read a fable, which had been developed by George, Ole, Steve and myself during Chris Green’s session at Munich. The fable was based on "Management by Dictatorship". The story was about a lion who was king of the jungle and who new what was best for all the other animals. The moral of the story was "Don’t Dictate - Consult". The purpose of which was to demonstrate how stories can be used to explain management concepts.

The Birmingham Learning Organisation was set up 12 months ago and is a group of individuals who voluntarily give up their time in the pursuit of learning. The group is made up of representatives from industry, commerce and academia. The Group meets bi- monthly, at Westhill College (Birmingham University) Centre for Lifelong Learning. The group decides from one meeting to the next the thematic topic.

Horror Scope – a light hearted look at Astrology, as a Business Tool

Here we attempt to view our ‘world’ from an extra-terrestrial perspective and we take a look at our Pisces [The Fishes] Members – (19 Feb to 20 March).

The twelfth sign of the Zodiac is concerned with:

• Compassion, sympathy, love, altruism
• Dreams, the psychic, precognition, sixth sense
• Illusions, magic, film, fantasy, make-believe
• Art, drama, music, poetry, prose, dance
• Unusual talent, memory, wisdom, versatility
• Sensitivity, intuition, humour, satire
• Secrets, fulfillment of life, eternity

Well !, these are certainly people to have about when Managing Uncertainties. Sounds like the ideal politician. As Margaret Thatcher (UK Prime Minister) ones said in answer to a Reporter who asked "Why did your Minister lie ?". "No", she said, "he didn’t lie, it was simply an economy of the truth".

This month’

Bridge the Gap ! with Stretch Learning

Web-Based Resources

Gurteen.com – STORY TELLING

"If stories are powerful, and if stories are going to be told, true or false, official and underground, flattering and humiliating, then leaders and managers need to be part of the process".

Microsoft, The World Bank and Intel are amongst the world's largest organisations that have adopted story telling as a means of communicating knowledge throughout the organisation.

If you would like to know more about storytelling, Stephen Denning of the World Bank has recently published a book on the subject called "The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations".

For more information on Stephen Denning's book:

http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000366FA?open&p=2215/

QUICK CLICKS:

Association for Management Education & Development

- UK Management Development Association

http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00004DEA?open&r=1&p=2215

The Findhorn Foundation

- World renowned organization for Personal Development Education

http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0002E21E?open&r=1&p=2215

The Thinking Page

- Resource for organizational and individual thinking

http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00004396?open&r=1&p=2215

WebFlash – Courtesy of the Marchmont Project

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Will Knowledge Management succumb to peer Pressure ? Corporate knowledge management systems are ill prepared to contain the rising tide of peer-to-peer collaboration technology, but they will not be able to ignore it for ever. Find out why, click on > http://www.elearningmag.com/issues/jan01/justintime.htm <

BookWatch

This is one for ECLO Member Arthur Battram, "The Complexity Advantage: How the Science of Complexity can help your Business Achieve Peak Performance", by S Kelly and M Allison, published by McGraw-Hill ISBN 0070014000 1999. S style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial">

Final Thoughts

The mind, ever the willing servant, will respond to boldness, for boldness, in effect, is a command to deliver mental resources. - Norman Vincent Peale

or …….. Dim Wits do not recognises boldness when they see it – Brian Taylor 2001

Any thought that is passed on to the subconscious often enough and convincingly enough is finally accepted. - Robert Collier

or ……. If it is not going ‘in’, use a hammer or shout louder – Brian Taylor 2001

We are what we repeatedly do. – Aristotle

or ……. Sleeping makes us who we are ?– Brian Taylor 2001

The E-Learner is published by the

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