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This paper explores a common assumption: that education must be made an open, interconnected chain of learning opportunities, available to people from cradle to grave, i.e., a "learning society." Learning is examined in the following three distinct, but interrelated, domains: the domain of work; the domain of the community; and the domain of politics. The focus is on the following four key elements of the learning process: collaboration; communication; critical thinking; and creativity. The paper is organized into five chapters. Following an introductory chapter discussing purpose and definitions, Victoria Marsick explores the concept of the learning organization, looking at the organizational learning process and ways to facilitate learning for the organization as a system and for individuals in the system. In the third chapter, Jeanne Bitterman takes up the larger entity of the learning community, using theories and models such as social learning, situational cognition, and communities of practice to describe ways to develop group learning and communicative competence. The potential of the learning society is then examined by Ruud van der Veen, who describes changes in the domain of politics and the learning of political systems. The chapter also addresses the role of adult educators in helping citizens learn how to take effective political action. The final chapter draws conclusions about the nature of collective learning and raises questions for future research and practice. (Contains 137 references.) (KC)

This book offers advice to facilitators and change agents who wish to build systems-level learning to create knowledge that can be used to gain a competitive advantage. Chapter 1 describes forces driving companies to build, sustain, and effectively use systems-level learning and presents and links a working definition of the learning organization to the authors' model. Chapter 2 sets out the steps recommended for designing a learning organization. Chapter 3 shows how an organization has implemented this change process. Chapter 4 describes a diagnostic instrument to use to begin the process--the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire. Chapter 5 describes the development of continuous learning systems. Chapter 6 examines facilitation of knowledge creation and management and looks at interventions that center around embedded systems used to promote, capture, and share learning. Chapter 7 explores how changes in reward systems and structures lead to transformed cultures. Chapters 8 and 9 examine two additional breakthrough strategies, action learning and action science. Chapter 10 discusses leadership. Chapter 11 takes a personal look at what has shaped the change agents who work in learning organizations. Chapter 12 summarizes the themes and strategies identified and assesses the implications for facilitators of learning organizations. The book contains 40 references and general and author indexes. (YLB)

This book describes a learning organization and reports on experiments carried out at four levels--individual, team, organizational, and societal--illustrating the action imperatives for creating a learning organization. Part 1 (chapters 1-3) explores the shifts that are leading companies to become learning organizations. It offers a framework for understanding how to design a learning organization and looks at the changes individuals must make and ways to build learning into the fabric of everyday work experiences. Part 2 (chapters 4-6) builds the framework for a learning organization to the team level. Models for creating collaborative learning through teams help illustrate how to work with an organization to begin the process of creating a sustained learning and change capacity. Part 3 (chapters 7-10) clarifies what learning looks like at the organizational and societal levels. It first describes experiments that hold promise as springboards to learning at the organizational level and then shows that learning can extend beyond the organization to enhance society at large. Part 4 (chapters 11-12) examines the constraints and dilemmas faced by designers of the learning organization and concludes by summarizing the action imperatives presented. Seven characteristics of a learning organization provide a template for evaluating the organization's current capacity to learn. Appendixes include 119 references and an index. (YLB)