LeadingOrganizational

Learning

Harnessing the Power of Knowledge

Marshall GoldsmithHoward MorganAlexander J. Ogg

EditorsForewords by

Niall FitzGerald and Frances Hesselbein

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Praise for Leading Organizational Learning

If the great challenge of an information-age economy is to make ideas,knowledge, and learning more and more productive, then this book makesan invaluable contribution. It is a textbook on knowledge managementatonce rich in theory and rich in down-to-earth examples.

Nathaniel Branden, author of The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem and Self-Esteem at Work

Leading Organizational Learning provides a fair and comprehensive look atthe field that some consider the key to tomorrows organizational successand others call a fad. Youll come out of reading the book with an opinionmuch closer to the key-to-success end of the spectrum, but you will also beinformed and educated by the honesty of the authors, who go out of theirway to acknowledge the faddishness that has sometimes characterized thefield of knowledge management. An interesting and a useful book by somevery thoughtful people.

William Bridges, author of Transitions, Managing Transition, and Creating You & Co.

Marshall Goldsmith and his coauthors have assembled a whos who ofexperts in organizations and leadership to summarize their latest thoughts inthis book. This is an essential book for todays managers and leaders.

Subir Chowdhury, chairman and CEO, ASI Consulting Group, and author, The Power of Six Sigma, Design For Six Sigma, and Organization 21C

Leading Organizational Learning is one of those rare books that combinesdeep wisdom with practical ideas to use on Monday morning!

Richard J. Leider, founder of The Inventure Group and best-sellingauthor of Repacking Your Bags and Whistle While You Work

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We all need to share information, learning, and knowledge to be successful,and this book is a must-read for us. People whose organizations have anestablished knowledge inventory or database but need to create a more effi-cient and/or more realistic process for accessing learning will find this bookvery helpful as well. This is also a great book for people who are at the fore-front of learningincluding consultants, CLOs, and HR heads.

Quinn Mills, professor of business administration,Harvard Business School

Knowledge, people, and relationships are the critical assets of our time.Leaders who leverage this human side of business will stand above the rest.Leading Organizational Learning will help foster the learning necessary to leadchange. This book is just the tool for you.

Bob Rosen, CEO, Healthy Companies International, and best-sellingauthor of Global Literacies, Leading People, and The Healthy Company

I found this to be a fascinating and illuminating compilation of points ofview and techniques for these mysterious concepts of organizational learn-ing and knowledge management.

Edgar H. Schein, Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus,MIT Sloan School of Management

Leading Organizational Learning reflects the reality that effective organiza-tional learning does not just happenthat leaders have to work at makinglearning an integral value and practice of their culture. This practical hand-book offers frameworks and guidelines for making organizational learning acompetitive advantage. Leaders positioning their enterprises for the futuredefinitely will find this book helpful.

R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr., CEO, Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training

Your ability to learn and apply new ideas and information determines thesuccess or failure of your organization. This book equips you with the criticalinsights and strategies you need to master the twenty-first century!

Brian Tracy, author, TurboStrategy

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Other Publications fromThe Leader to Leader Institute

Organizational Leadership ResourceThe Drucker Foundation Self-Assessment ToolThe Drucker Foundation Future SeriesThe Leader of the Future, Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard Beckhard,

EditorsThe Organization of the Future, Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard

Beckhard, EditorsThe Community of the Future, Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard

Beckhard, Richard F. Schubert, EditorsWisdom to Action SeriesLeading for Innovation, Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Iain Somerville,

EditorsLeading Beyond the Walls, Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Iain Somerville,

EditorsLeaderbooksThe Collaboration Challenge: How Nonprofits and Businesses Succeed Through

Strategic Alliances, James E. AustinMeeting the Collaboration Challenge (workbook and video)Journal and Related BooksLeader to Leader JournalLeader to Leader: Enduring Insights on Leadership from the Drucker Foundations

Award-Winning Journal, Frances Hesselbein, Paul Cohen, EditorsOn Creativity, Innovation, and Renewal, Frances Hesselbein, Rob Johnston, EditorsOn High-Performance Organizations, Frances Hesselbein, Rob Johnston, EditorsOn Leading Change, Frances Hesselbein, Rob Johnston, EditorsOn Mission and Leadership, Frances Hesselbein, Rob Johnston, EditorsVideo Training ResourcesExcellence in Nonprofit Leadership Video, featuring Peter F. Drucker, Max De Pree,

Frances Hesselbein, and Michele Hunt. Moderated by Richard F. SchubertLeading in a Time of Change: What It Will Take to Lead Tomorrow, a conversation

with Peter F. Drucker and Peter M. Senge, introduction by Frances HesselbeinLessons in Leadership Video, with Peter F. DruckerPeter Drucker: An Intellectual Journey, interviews with Peter DruckerOnline Resourceswww.leadertoleader.org

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About The Leader to Leader Institute

The Leader to Leader Institute has its roots in the social sector and its prede-cessor, the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, whichin January 2003 transferred its ongoing activities to the new identity. TheInstitute furthers its mission to strengthen the leadership of the social sec-tor by providing educational opportunities and resources to leaders.

The Institute serves as a broker of intellectual capital, bringing togetherthe finest thought leaders, consultants, and authors in the world with theleaders of social sector voluntary organizations. By providing intellectualresources to leaders in the business, government, and social sectors, and byfostering partnerships across these sectors, the Leader to Leader Instituteworks to strengthen social sector leaders of the United States and of nationsaround the globe.

The Leader to Leader Institute believes that a healthy society requiresthree vital sectors: a public sector of effective governments; a private sectorof effective businesses; and a social sector of effective community organiza-tions. The mission of the social sector is changing lives. It accomplishes thismission by addressing the needs of the spirit, the mind, and the bodyofindividuals, the community, and society. The social sector also provides a sig-nificant sphere for individuals and corporations to practice effective andresponsible citizenship.

The Leader to Leader Institute is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. Itdoes not make financial grants. Its offerings fall in three areas:

Supporting social sector leaders of character and competence Forging cross-sector partnerships that deliver social sector results Providing leadership resources that engage and inform social sec-

tor leaders

For more information, see leadertoleader.org.

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LeadingOrganizational

Learning

Harnessing the Power of Knowledge

Marshall GoldsmithHoward MorganAlexander J. Ogg

EditorsForewords by

Niall FitzGerald and Frances Hesselbein

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Copyright 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.Published by Jossey-BassA Wiley Imprint989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 www.josseybass.com

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted inany form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, orotherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States CopyrightAct, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization throughpayment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the web atwww.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to thePermissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030,201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, e-mail: permcoordinator@wiley.com.

Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey-Bassdirectly call our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-956-7739, outside theU.S. at 317-572-3986, or fax 317-572-4002.

Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content thatappears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Leading organizational learning : harnessing the power of knowledge / byMarshall Goldsmith, Howard Morgan, and Alexander J. Ogg, editors.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-7879-7218-5 (alk. paper)1. Organizational learning. 2. Knowledge management. I. Goldsmith,

Marshall. II. Morgan, Howard J. III. Ogg, Alexander J., 1954-HD58.82.L37 2004658.4038dc22

2003024738

Printed in the United States of AmericaFIRST EDITION

HB Printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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www.josseybass.com

vii

Contents

Figures and Exhibits xi

Foreword xiiiNiall FitzGerald

Foreword xvFrances Hesselbein

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xxiii

Part One: Challenges and Dilemmas 1

1. Why Arent Those Specials Selling Today? 3Elliott Masie

2. Five Dilemmas of Knowledge Management 13Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner

3. Effectively Influencing Up: Ensuring That YourKnowledge Makes a Difference 19

Marshall Goldsmith

4. Where Managing Knowledge Goes Wrong and What to Do Instead 27

Niko Canner and Jon R. Katzenbach

5. Knowledge Management Involves Neither Knowledge nor Management 39

Marc S. Effron

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Part Two: Processes That Work 51

6. The Real Work of Knowledge Management 53Margaret J. Wheatley

7. Tangling with Learning Intangibles 65Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood

8. When Transferring Trapped Corporate Knowledge to Suppliers Is a Winning Strategy 79

Larraine Segil

9. Informal Learning: Developing a Value for Discovery 91Marcia L. Conner

10. The Company as a Marketplace for Ideas: Simple but Not Easy 103

Alexander J. Ogg and Thomas Cummings

11. Knowledge Mapping: An Application Model for Organizations 113

Spencer Clark and Richard Mirabile

12. Just-in-Time Guidance 121Calhoun W. Wick and Roy V. H. Pollock

Part Three: Leaders Who Make a Difference 133

13. What Leading Executives Knowand You Need to Learn 135

Howard J. Morgan

14. Rethinking Our Leadership Thinking: Choosing a More Authentic Path 147

Gary Heil and Linda Alepin

15. Learning at the Top: How CEOs Set the Tone for the Knowledge Organization 161

James F. Bolt and Charles Brassard

16. Unleash the Learning Epidemic 175James Belasco

viii CONTENTS

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17. Leading: A Performing Learning Art 185Alexander B. Horniman

18. Whats the Big Idea? The Little Things That Build Great Leadership in Organizations 195

Lauren A. Cantlon and Robert P. Gandossy

Part Four: Changes for the Future 209

19. Learning Stored Forward: A Priceless Legacy 211Betsy Jacobson and Beverly Kaye

20. Developing New Ideas for Your Clientsand Convincing Them to Act 219

Andrew Sobel

21. Making Knowledge Move 231Jon L. Powell

22. The Role of Change Management in Knowledge Management 241

Marc J. Rosenberg

23. Building Social Connections to Gain the Knowledge Advantage 255

Susan E. Jackson and Niclas L. Erhardt

Part Five: Case Studies and Examples 267

24. Some Key Examples of Knowledge Management 269

W. Warner Burke

25. Leadership and Access to Ideas 281Allan R. Cohen

26. Capturing Ideas, Creating Information, and Liberating Knowledge 291

Peter Drummond-Hay and Barbara G. Saidel

27. Learning at the Speed of Flight 301Fred Harburg

CONTENTS ix

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x CONTENTS

28. The Audacity of Imagination: How Lilly Is Creating Research Without Walls 309

Sharon Sullivan, Bryan Dunnivant,

and Laurie Sachtleben

29. Developing a Learning Culture on Wall Street: One Firms Experience 317

Steffen Landauer and Steve Kerr

Notes 333

Index 347

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Figures and Exhibits

Figures

7.1 The Individual Learning Cycle 68

9.1 Formal and Informal Methods People Use to Learn at Work 92

17.1 The Knowing-Learning Dynamic 187

17.2 The Four-Stage Learning Cycle 188

27.1 Instrument Landing System 303

27.2 Goal Attainment 304

Exhibits

7.1 Learning Matrix Form 74

8.1 Managing a Supply Relationship like an Alliance 80

8.2 Supplier Versus Alliance Management 86

8.3 Outsourcing Suppliers Versus Supplier Alliances 87

22.1 Knowledge Management and Change Management Checklist: How to Gauge the Potential Success of Your Knowledge Management Initiative 252

25.1 Mechanisms Organizational Leaders Use to Stimulate Entrepreneurial Behavior by Others 289

29.1 How Pine Street Works 322

29.2 Goldman Sachs Leadership Principles 327

xi

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Foreword

Any organization that does not continuously seek new sources ofcompetitive advantage will fade and die. When competitiveadvantage is found, it must be nurtured and sustained, but per-versely, as with all living organisms, it begins to die at birth. TheHoly Grail is unique competitive advantage.

Yet any organization has only one truly unique competitiveadvantage: its knowledge. Knowledge that is built up over the his-tory of the organization and that exists at a point in time across itsgeography. So it is the source of life for any company. How strange,then, that we cannot define knowledge accurately, catalogue iteffectively, or use it efficiently.

Best practice is probably 20 percent utilization. For what otherasset would we accept such low productivity, let alone the one thatis ours uniquely and is essential to sustaining competitive advantage?

Knowledge resides in peopleand theres the rub. Peopletravel; they leave or retire, taking their knowledge with them. Corporate memory can be developed and sustained, but it must bea conscious and continuous process.

Knowledge must be accessible and shared to have value. Peo-ple need the means and the motivation to share generously. Theyneed the skill to identify and spread the ideas of value and to avoidbeing sucked into a swamp of useless information. One of my pre-decessors once remarked wistfully, If only Unilever knew whatUnilever knows. I would update that remark by adding, and thendid something with it!

xiii

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The series of articles brought together in this book is anAladdins cave, and the editors have laid it out so that the mostvaluable jewels are instantly accessible. If this helps us understandbetter how knowledge and learning move through people and orga-nizations, how we as leaders can create a path for knowledge, andhow we best apply that knowledge for organizational effectiveness,we will probably improve utilization to a modest 40 percent, whichis a mere 100 percent improvement!

Unique and sustained competitive advantage, here I come.

London, England Niall FitzGeraldDecember 2003 Chairman, Unilever

xiv FOREWORD BY NIALL FITZGERALD

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Foreword

Ideas on the move do not wait for the reluctant, resistant, would-be leader. They move on the winds of change; sometimes they arejust straws in the wind that we try to grasp. The leaders of change,the leaders of tomorrow, have invested in the future of their peo-ple, the future of the organization, through powerful learningopportunitiescontinuous, continuing learning opportunities forevery member, every leader of the enterprisefrom the leader onthe loading dock to the CEO. The organization is a learning organizationdeliberately and exuberantly celebrated as such.Learning as a value has permeated the culture and has moved intothe lives of the people and throughout the organization until thereis no question if, only how, when, and where. The way has longbeen accepted and celebrated as part of the vision of the future ofthe organization.

Leading change is an integral part of organizational learning.Learning that is focused on the future, on the changing organiza-tion in a rapidly changing environmenta future few can describein a world that has changed forever.

When the roll is called in 2010, the organizations respondingwill be those that saw organizational learning as the key investmentin building the viable, relevant, effective organization of thefuturehighly effective, highly competitive, highly successful.Without the investment in organizational learning, the otherinvestments will not matter. The organization of the future will bedefined by its ability to provide learning at every level. This is anindispensable part of the planning, the strategy, and the blueprintfor the organization of tomorrow.

xv

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This book, Leading Organizational Learning, is a handbook forthe futurea handbook for leaders of the future, leading a band oflearners focused on tomorrow. Every chapter, by great thought lead-ers, delivers messages that inspire, illuminate, and help chart theway into an uncertain future that we have yet to define. LeadingOrganizational Learning is a great compendium of future-focusedthinking and experience that can be a treasured companion on ourjourney to new significance, new effectiveness, new relevance.

New York, New York Frances HesselbeinDecember 2003

xvi FOREWORD BY FRANCES HESSELBEIN

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Preface

Today, with the added pressures of the electronic revolution, we areinundated with information. What is important? What needsattention? We know that the answers to these questions probablyalready exist within our organizations, but we have yet to map theeasiest and most accessible routes to them. In addition, because ofthe rapid pace of change in organizations today, it is often the casethat knowledge and learning are lost when an individual moves on,meaning that those new to an organization or a position must rein-vent the wheel. This book is a response to the fact that on thewhole, organizations and leaders have grappled with, but not yetmastered, learning and knowledge sharing. Thus a strong marketexists for those who can efficiently fill or help others fill the ever-growing need for information and knowledge.

Leading Organizational Learning will help you, as leaders, under-stand how to locate, share, and use information more efficiently.Our book will help you identify sources of learning inefficiency aswell as how to close the gap between knowledge and people and thus create success for your organizations. The articles in this book, written by some of the worlds leading thought leaders,include the latest and most up-to-date ideas, concepts, and prac-tices on the subject of organizational learning. The prestigiousgroup of contributors to this volume includes global and industryleaders who run major corporations and advise the CEOs, manag-ing directors, and presidents of leading countries and organizationsworldwide.

xvii

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Opening Leading Organizational Learning, feel free to begin withany topic, contribution, or author that seems familiar or interesting.Progress through the book in any order, or proceed chapter by chapter if you prefer.

For your convenience, our book is divided into five parts:Challenges and Dilemmas, Processes That Work, LeadersWho Make a Difference, Changes for the Future, and CaseStudies and Examples. Part One, Challenges and Dilemmas,opens with Why Arent Those Specials Selling Today? in whichElliott Masie gives a real-life business example of how a problem issolved by moving ideas. Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner discuss five organizational cultures and how each reconcilesknowledge management dilemmas in Five Dilemmas of Knowl-edge Management. In Effectively Influencing Up: Ensuring ThatYour Knowledge Makes a Difference, Marshall Goldsmith offersten guidelines intended to help key employees and knowledge workers do a better job of influencing upper manage-ment. Niko Canner and Jon Katzenbach explain the upside anddownside of knowledge management in Where ManagingKnowledge Goes Wrong and What to Do Instead. Marc Effronconcludes this part with Knowledge Management Involves Neither Knowledge nor Management, in which he touts the benefits of person-to-person contact as the best way to move ideasthrough an organization.

Part Two, Processes That Work, begins with The Real Workof Knowledge Management, in which Margaret Wheatley dis-cusses the Information Age and the definition of knowledge, thebeliefs that prevent knowledge management, and the principlesthat facilitate it. Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood introduce usto the three building blocks of learning organizations in Tanglingwith Learning Intangibles. Larraine Segil explores knowledgesharing, organization to organization, through outsourcing,alliances, and profit-centered activities in When TransferringTrapped Corporate Knowledge to Suppliers Is a Winning Strategy.In Informal Learning: Developing a Value for Discovery,

xviii PREFACE

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Marcia Conner explores informal learninghow people learn onthe job. Sandy Ogg and Tom Cummings discuss how larger organi-zations can leverage their bigness and benefit from early infor-mation to compete with smaller competitors in The Company asa Marketplace for Ideas: Simple but Not Easy. In KnowledgeMapping: An Application Model for Organizations, SpencerClark and Richard Mirabile propose a method of knowledge mapping to effectively organize and use knowledge in decisionmaking. This part concludes with Just-in-Time Guidance by Calhoun Wick and Roy Pollock. The authors outline opportunitiesand principles for applying information technology to leadershipdevelopment guidance.

Part Three, Leaders Who Make a Difference, opens withWhat Leading Executives Knowand You Need to Learn,Howard Morgans examination of the knowledge and attributesthat are integral to the success of todays executives. Gary Heil andLinda Alepin, in Rethinking Our Leadership Thinking: Choosinga More Authentic Path, advocate the development of authentic-ity as a way for leaders to keep ideas moving and people stimulated.In Learning at the Top: How CEOs Set the Tone for the Knowl-edge Organization, James Bolt and Charles Brassard investigatehow CEOs do and do not learn and why they should. JamesBelasco discusses the development and promotion of learner-leaders in organizations in Unleash the Learning Epidemic.Alexander Hornimans Leading: A Performing Learning Artdefines leader-learners as creative innovative learners who baselearning on knowledge (facts), thinking, and understanding. In the last chapter in Part Three, Whats the Big Idea? The LittleThings That Build Great Leadership in Organizations, LaurenCantlon and Robert Gandossy explore five nuances of great companies.

Part Four, Changes for the Future, begins with a chapter byBetsy Jacobson and Beverly Kaye, Learning Stored Forward: APriceless Legacy, which defines explicit and tacit knowledge anddiscusses the passing of knowledge from person to person. In

PREFACE xix

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Developing New Ideas for Your Clientsand Convincing Themto Act, Andrew Sobel explains how consultants can help organi-zations to develop ideas. Jon Powell reviews knowledge manage-ment over the past decade, highlighting its successes and failuresand providing tips for future learning, in Making KnowledgeMove. In The Role of Change Management in Knowledge Man-agement, Marc Rosenberg adds the human element, change management, to knowledge management, giving us an equationthat just may work. In the final chapter in this part, BuildingSocial Connections to Gain the Knowledge Advantage, SusanJackson and Niclas Erhardt lay out the myths and realities ofknowledge management and discuss how organizations can getknowledge moving.

Part Five, Case Studies and Examples, opens with Some KeyExamples of Knowledge Management, in which W. Warner Burkeexplores key examples and lessons for leaders in the domain ofknowledge management. Allan Cohens Leadership and Access toIdeas delves into the concept of interaction in the form of leadersasking for employees for new business ideas. In Capturing Ideas,Creating Information, and Liberating Knowledge, Peter Drummond-Hay and Barbara Saidel use their experiences at Russell Reynoldsto define a new role, the connector, whose purpose is to join peo-ple to information and people to people. Fred Harburg discussesMotorolas Leadership Supply Initiative as a best practice caseexample in Learning at the Speed of Flight. In The Audacity ofImagination: How Lilly Is Creating Research Without Walls,Sharon Sullivan, Bryan Dunnivant, and Laurie Sachtleben revealEli Lilly Companys strategy for learning, gathering ideas, andresearching new products. Using Goldman-Sachs as an example,Steffen Landauer and Steve Kerr bring Part Five to a close withDeveloping a Learning Culture on Wall Street: One Firms Experience, which discusses obstacles that financial firms face increating a learning culture.

Leading Organizational Learning is our attempt to bring you thenewest and most innovative ideas on the subjects of leadership and

xx PREFACE

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learning. We hope you will enjoy our book and will glean muchknowledge from its chapters, written by many of the top minds intheir fields. Last but not least, we hope that you and your organiza-tions will be inspired to continually strive for a learning future!

December 2003 Marshall GoldsmithRancho Santa Fe, California

Howard J. MorganRancho Santa Fe, California

Alexander J. OggRotterdam, The Netherlands

PREFACE xxi

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Acknowledgments

The thoughts, insights, and visions expressed in Leading Organiza-tional Learning represent the thinking of some of the worlds mostknowledgeable minds. We thank them for unselfishly sharing theirideas with you. The value of an edited book depends on individu-als like them and their willingness to share with readers.

Capturing those thoughts and creating a valuable book is morechallenging. The credit for taking the individual masterpieces andmaking them a true collection of art is solely credited to our man-aging editor, Sarah McArthur. Sarahs patience and thoroughnesswith the editing process continues to amaze us, and the quality ofher work is equal to the quality of the contributors.

We would also like to thank Dorothy Hearst and all of the staffof Jossey-Bass for their commitment to this project and their supporting our vision. Their commitment to the distribution ofquality business resources is appreciated and recognized.

Any labor of love requires the patience of spouses. Ours wereno exception. Special thanks go to Lyda, Patrice, Maria, Heather,Michael, Alexander, and Kathryn.

M.G., H.J.M., A.J.O.

xxiii

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Part One

Challenges and Dilemmas

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Chapter One

Why Arent Those Specials Selling Today?

Elliott Masie

It was the day after Thanksgiving and all the boxes were stacked.You know that Friday, the huge shopping day after the turkey isdigested, when citizens flock to stores and malls to start their searchfor a great holiday gift. Throughout the United States, at Wal-Martstores, there was a killer combination speciala computer, mon-itor, and printer at an extremely awesome price. Boxes of thiscombo product were stacked, bar-coded, and ready to be takenaway by eager shoppers. Wal-Mart, an aggressive user of real-timeinventory control and predictive shopping models, had full confidence that thousands of these high-tech bargains would leavetheir stores across the country in the shopping basket of shoppersthat Friday.

We cut to Wal-Mart headquarters on Friday morning and lookover the shoulder of a merchandising manager. Something iswrong! Very few of this product have been purchased throughoutthe country, and stores have already been open for five hours, withshoppers in every aisle. What could be wrong? He drills down tothe store-by-store sales data and finds a single store where peoplehave started to purchase this product after a few hours of no sales.Perhaps there is a clue to this dilemma at that location. He picksup the phone, calls the store, and hears this from the electronicsdepartment manager:

For the first few hours, we had people looking at the boxes of computers, but no one was buying. A couple of shoppers asked me if there really was a computer, color monitor, and a printer in

3

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this small box. They figured that you could not fit all that equip-ment in that box, so they probably would just get a coupon thatwould have to be mailed in for the printer at a later date. In otherwords, they could not visually see and perceive the value of this special. I took one of the boxes, sliced open the side panel so thatshoppers could see the contents, and placed it next to the stack ofboxes. Almost instantly, customers started to purchase the computerspecials.

Back at headquarters, the merchandising manager knew whathe had to do. He had to create an instant learning, knowledge, andaction moment for electronics departments around the country. Heput together a quick note detailing how to display the product, andwithin a few hours, the marketing display was modified. Sureenough, all around the country, hour-by-hour sales of the productreached their original planned levels.

What do we call this process? Knowledge management? Supplychain management? E-learning? Customer relationship monitor-ing? Best practice harvesting? Collaborative real-time innovation?Actually, its a blend of all of those things. It combines all of thesecorporate processes, but even more important, it demonstrates howan organization committed to being smart, in real time, can lever-age an active learning network to learn and teach. My use of theword network should not take you to a hardware or even softwareimage. What Wal-Mart used that day was a combination of infor-mation, analysis, investigation, communication, and digitally basedlearning.

Factors at Work

In this particular case, the factors at work that are critical to mov-ing learning around the organization rapidly include predictivemodeling, real-time information and real-time learning, people,encouragement of initiative and innovation, rapid authoring oflearning, and the second wave of learning implementation.

4 LEADING ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

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