On
the morning of the first day of the Linkage Inc. Chicago CLO Conference,
my colleague and I were among the last to enter the meeting room—only
to find the seating arrangement more conducive to a wedding than to a
single speaker. After scanning the room full of round tables we managed
to find a couple of seats at the rear, neatly 180 degrees from the screen
and podium.
Despite
our seats, the content started well with Dave
Ulrich from the University of Michigan. Though he looks more like
a football coach than a professor of business administration, he offered
some interesting insights into the learning organization and intellectual
capital. Key points included the equation “Intellectual capital = competence
times commitment,” accompanied by models to create both in your organization.
He offered the theory that knowledge is an asset you don’t have to own
to access, prompting some among the audience to begin to rethink their
IP policies. He also pointed out that every year there is 50% new knowledge,
therefore there must be a process for renewal of knowledge within organizations.
His remarks were sprinkled with an appropriate amount of self-deprecating
humor, which didn’t really hide his well-developed ego, but all in all
he presented some very practical models and ideas that would be easily
implemented when the audience got back to the office.
Another
highlight on the agenda was Marshall Goldsmith—cited by the Wall Street Journal
as one of America’s top ten executive development consultants last year.
Describing himself as the “friendly bald guy,” Goldsmith led the audience
through a highly interactive and entertaining hour. Fully experiential
exercises were followed by a rapid fire Q&A session to make sure we
“got it.” His remarks were centered on the application of coaching in
the facilitation of learning. This session won the prize for best giveaway—all
audience members received a copy of Goldsmith’s new book, Coaching
for Leadership.
The
high point in the conference was Peter
Senge’s session on the morning of Day 2. With many apologies for the
“messiness” and incompleteness of what he was about to offer since it
was primarily new material, he launched into a series of thoughts and
ideas centered on developing strategy for the creation and diffusion of
knowledge in organizations. I took two major perspectives from Senge’s
session:
1.
Companies operate from one of two modes: “make and sell” or “sense and
respond.” “Make and sell” is a strategy of hoarding knowledge, versus
“sense and respond,” a strategy of sharing knowledge. “Make and sell”
implies you are in a commodity business. “Sense and respond” describes
businesses that are truly meeting their customers’ needs.
2.
Knowledge generation (learning) is a social phenomenon that best occurs
in the “spaces”—unstructured time without commitment. Mr. Senge offered
the following anecdote to describe the power of “slack time” and social
networks in helping a company stay competitive:
“Over
a period of time, HP started to notice that the greatest percentage of
their new product ideas was coming from the same group of female engineers.
After lengthy examination of the work processes and behaviors of these
people turned up no insights, it was discovered that this group of women
engineers were all members of a weekly quilting circle. Every week, for
an evening, they got together and quilted, in the old-fashioned way. And
while their hands were busy, they talked. From this informal, unstructured
chat that was occurring during their recreational pursuits, incredibly
creative ideas were emerging. Hence a newfound appreciation for the value
of social networks has developed at HP. In addition the company does not
trivialize the fact that all the participants of the quilting circle were
women—they continue to examine the culture of creativity that women are able
to establish amongst themselves versus that of men (definitive conclusions
yet to be made).”
In
addition, I liked his practical definition of knowledge: “Knowledge is
the capacity for effective action, as evaluated by an adjudicating community.”
The majority of the audience members concurred, many admitting to struggling
to create something as practical for their own organizations.
Peter
Senge’s session was the last session that really engaged the audience
and held their attention. The content from that point onward was weak
and repetitive—a disappointment given the richness of the subject area.
Overall,
Linkage’s Chief Learning Officer conference seemed to hit too theoretical
a note for the audience members struggling to define and ascribe value
to learning in their respective organizations. Given the increasing interest
in the subject area and the simultaneously increasing level of expertise
resident in organizations, future conferences will have to offer more
pragmatic “how-to’s” than this one did. And as with many conferences,
the real benefit to the attendees seemed to be the opportunity to interact
with people facing similar issues and situations and compare notes.
Karen
Wright is the founder of Parachute Executive Coaching, and is one of Canada’s
first Professional Certified Coaches serving corporate managers.
A driving force in the emergence of coaching in Canada, Karen is the Canadian
Regional Leader and Toronto Chapter Past Host for the International Coach
Federation. Reach her at karen@parachutegroup.com.
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