Building the Learning Organization ─ Achieving Strategic Advantage Through a Commitment to Learning

Arguing that businesses need to be learning organizations to sustain competitive advantage in the new environment, Marquardt, an international speaker and consultant who teaches human and organizational learning at George Washington U., shows managers how to transform an organization into one that continually learns from its experiences and translates that knowledge into improved performance. He presents a systems learning organizations model and its subsystems--learning, organization, people, knowledge, and technology--and how they can support each other to enhance learning, with the top ten strategies for using each. He explains how to use the tools of action learning to build the subsystems and provides assessment tools and action steps needed to form coalitions, connect learning with operations, cut bureaucracy and streamline the structure, extend learning to the entire chain, capture learning and release knowledge, and create effective outcomes to further goals. This edition has additional strategies and new examples of organizations from Asia and Europe. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Michael J. Marquardt, Ed.D. is professor of Human Resource Development and International Affairs as well as Program Director of Overseas Programs at George Washington University. Dr. Marquardt also serves as President of the World Institute for Action Learning and is the author of 20 books, including Leading with Questions and Optimizing the Power of Action Learning.