The reality is that though much has been written about 'Learning Organisations' since Senge's book (and of course a little before) still we don't see many successful, practical examples. Grape works in a practical, hands on way to facilitate the creation of collaborative cross functional structures that support knowledge sharing and learning. These structures have many names: Communities of practice, Wisdom Councils, Quality circles, Collaborative work systems.
The key in these structures is that they are often built around processes, products, services or customers. And by connecting different functions they bring added value that traditional silo structures cannot give.
In order for these structures to work they need norms, rules, procedures and group tools that support collaboration. We bring conceptual frameworks and practical collaboration tools.We use some basic premises of Wenger and then influences from chaordic groups and Hock to help the budding community decide:
- The Purpose or 'what is it that we want to learn, understand and improve...why are we together'?
- The Principles or 'What are the values in action that we will live by in this Community' ?
- The Practices or 'What are the tools and ground rules through which we will collaborate on a day to day basis ?'
- The Roles or 'Who will volunteer to serve the community and what roles will they perform?'
- The Start or how to start the Community and what needs to happen in the early days
- The Sustenance or how to maintain and support the community as it lives and grows
For more information on creating Learning Organisations please contact Greg O'Shea or Pepe Nummi.