A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did?' Don't do that.'" - Douglas Adams
Are you a life-long learner? Do you create opportunities for your staff to receive continuing education or professional development? What kind of learners are in your organization? (Kinesthetic? Audio? Visual?) Perhaps learning brings to mind a classroom, a desk, a chalkboard and pop-quizzes. The American educational system emphasizes individual learning in institutional settings. And even as we age out of that system, even if it never served us, we may carry that model with us. Group learning is something different, something that can happen every day, and in every aspect of our organizations. For decades, from grassroots liberation movements to Fortune 500 boardrooms, models of learning together as a team, a community, or as an organization have proved to be effective, important and revolutionary. In this way learning isn't just a time out from day-to-day activities. Rather, we can learn as we do. Learning in this sense is a cycle of action and reflection, theory and practice, introspection and dialogue. This Tip includes resources for cultivating learning in our work, and in our organizations.
Learning Organizations: What happens when a group of people really work at their best? Defined by Peter Senge in 1990, learning organizations are places where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.
Popular Education: Basic information about popular education as a connection between learning and action, with links to resources.
Leading to Choices: Filled with stories, questions and exercises, and intended for groups of women to learn together as they build their own leadership towards improving their communities, Leading to Choices is a curriculum from the Women's Learning Partnership (free in 16 languages).