Learning About Learning Organizations

Transforming Culture: Creating a Learning Organization, a one-day
introduction to the use of the learning organization model as a
framework for changing the organizational culture of an academic
library, was offered on March 28 as a preconference to the 1995 ACRL
National Conference in Pittsburgh.  The program, attended by 25
participants from a variety of academic and research libraries, included
an introduction to basic theory and concepts of the learning
organization; an exploration of the five disciplines that form the core
of this theory (shared visioning, team learning, personal mastery,
mental models, and systems thinking); a discussion of exemplary
leadership practices; and identification of key steps necessary to build
a learning organization.  As part of the day's learning, participants
completed not only an individual leadership style inventory to assess
individual leadership actions and behaviors, but also an instrument to
assess organizational culture and isolate major issues to be addressed
in evolving their organization as a learning organization. 

	Maureen Sullivan, OMS Organizational Development Consultant, and
Shelley Phipps, Assistant Dean for Team Facilitation at the University
of Arizona and an OMS Adjunct Faculty member, designed and presented
this program.  This one-day program and a two-day version are available
to ARL member libraries.  For more information or to schedule an
offering at your library, contact Maureen Sullivan at the OMS office
(202) 296-8656 or email at maureen@cni.org. 


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ARL 180
A Bimonthly Newsletter of Research Library Issues and Actions
Association of Research Libraries
May 1995