In this section:

Why it works...

The current wave of change is driven largely by the need and capacity to work "in network," using information and communication technologies. As a result, work evolves from individual to collaborative tasks. Achieving the necessary changes requires more than skilled and trained individuals. It requires a strong internal consensus, with constant and shared upgrading of knowledge. This can only take place when there are well designed protocols and effective tools, shared and understood by all stakeholders. Traditional training generally fails to change ingrained habits. OLLI provides the tools to help change habits, using the proven principles of the learning organization.

Learning organizations are those that have systems, mechanisms and processes in place to continually enhance their capabilities at three scales -- individual, team and organization. One of the critical areas of management research today, learning organizations are understood as those that:

are adaptive to their external environment
continually enhance their capability to change and adapt
develop collective as well as individual learning
use the results of learning to achieve better results

Such organizations derive their strengths from distinct levels of capability that build on each other to provide strategic advantage in the organization, integration and application of knowledge. These capabilities are:

learning information
learning new job skills that are transferable to others
learning to adapt and
learning to learn

These competencies require more than individual mastery of technical information. They call for meta-analysis -- or, in plain language, self-awareness -- of behavior patterns and their implications. By virtue of the complexity and distribution of information needed for this awareness, the higher levels of functioning of the learning organization are increasingly geared to social, rather than individual, processes. Learning to adapt, and to learn, are intrinsically group skills. The uniqueness of OLLI's pedagogy and use of technology is derived from this understanding.

Becoming a true learning organization nearly always requires a culture change, to draw people into collaborative relationships without undermining their individual creativity and satisfaction. OLLI's technologies and services help this process to occur more smoothly and coherently. We provide the missing link among the four strategic areas in any learning organization: knowledge management, personal and interpersonal skills, technology and organizational systems.