NTC Session Home   Working Definition & Tools    Notes from the Session

(If you'd like to edit or otherwise contribute to any of these pages, contact Elissa Perry).

Resources, Terms & Processes

What's emerging in our work about what supports learning communities - Learning Lab One - Synthesis

Things to Consider

• Hierarchy is not inherently a problem - need transparency and authenticity
• Technical hierarchy not social hierarchy
• Acknowledgment of Power & power dynamics
• In role of teacher, when the authority in a particular skill or situation, and learner when not.
• Trust
• Communication
• Documentation

Terms & Processes

• Understanding
• Networks and Communities of Practice
• Backwards Planning
• Web 2.0 and Social Media
• Open Space also OpenSpace World
• World Cafe
• Action Research
• A listing of particpatory group learning processes

Documents 

• Peter Senge and the Learning Organization (link to an overview of Senge and his learning organization framework)
• Ask the Expert: Strategic Learning and Evaluation (link to a resource on evaluation as a tool for the learning organization)
• Community is a Process (PDF)
• Accelerating Learning about Leadership Development: A Learning Community Approach (PDF)
• Kathy Allen - Facilitating Learning Conversations and Communities (PDF)
• The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter Senge (link to a book well worth reading, more business focused by still relevant and applicable.)

"It has always been clear that there are no magic bullets for building learning organizations....  Yet much has been learned and continues to be learned about creating work environments that produce inspired results and generate fun while doing so."  --Peter Senge