Since the publication of Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline, there has been intense interest in the advantages provided by having a learning organization, in which employees are skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge. If the concept of a learning organization seems a little vague at times, it is given clearer shape through the three building blocks for building a learning organization detailed in Harvard Business Review by Harvard's David Garvin and Amy Edmondson and Carnegie Mellon University's Francesca Gino:

• Building Block 1 -- A supportive learning environment: An environment that supports learning has four distinguishing characteristics. There is psychological safety, so employees don't fear being belittled or marginalized if they disagree. There is an appreciation of differences, which is vital since learning occurs when people are aware of opposing ideas. There is openness to new ideas, with employees willing to take risks crafting novel approaches. Finally, there is time for reflection, so people can analyze and think critically.



• Building Block 2 -- Concrete learning processes and practices: A learning organization is not cultivated effortlessly. It arises from a series of concrete steps and activities that encourage the generation, collection, and dissemination of information. Those include experimentation to develop and test new products and services, intelligence gathering to keep track of trends, disciplined analysis and interpretation to solve problems, and education and training of staff.



• Building Block 3 --Leadership that reinforces learning: When leaders actively question and listen to employees, prompting dialogues and debate, people are encouraged to learn.

With fears of a recession growing in the United States, it pays for Canadian entrepreneurs to be sensitive to the four mistakes that they most frequently make in a recession, according to Scott Shane, a professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University, writing in the Small Business Trends blog:

• Failing to take advantage of decreasing costs: If demand slackens, your suppliers are hurting too. Often you can strike a better deal to cut your costs by paying your suppliers less or hiring better people at a lower cost.



• Thinking the only way to increase demand is to cut price: On average, entrepreneurs are more successful when they compete on service, quality, or something other than price. So shifting to price cutting in a recession is often a losing strategy.



• Failing to recognize increased competition: In a recession, competition accelerates because businesses are chasing less total demand. In addition, when unemployment rises, people start new businesses, which further increases competition. So the need to have a competitive advantage is even more important in a recession than a booming economy.



• Forgetting that some products, or even whole businesses, are counter-cyclical: When people cut back on spending, they often substitute one product for another -- cutting back on the number of steak dinners they eat out, for example, but treating themselves to pasta as a replacement. That makes pasta a counter-cyclical product. Look for opportunities based on serving a counter-cyclical need.

Answer one e-mail and two seem to fly back. If you're sinking under the weight of the electronic avalanche consider slowing down the speed by which you respond to e-mail. On his Timeback blog, consultant Dan Markovitz says you're sowing the seeds of your own electronic demise by answering so quickly. People know they will get an immediate response, so they depend on you for more than they should, not developing self-reliance.

"You need to stop answering e-mails as they come in. Instead, check your inbox twice a day. You'll find that when people know you won't provide an immediate response, they somehow find ways to get their jobs done without you," he notes.

And don't be worried that you'll miss something. "If it's really important -- the building is on fire, your biggest customer just went bankrupt, a plague of locusts just flew in through the third floor window -- people will find you, somehow. They won't rely on just e-mail," he says.

Consultant Donald Cooper starts his day about 240 days a year at a hotel breakfast buffet somewhere around the world. They're all much the same, except for one place he found in Sydney, Australia. Somebody there figured out some folks want their bacon crisp while others prefer it soft and greasy. So they went to a little extra trouble and cooked it both ways.

"Do you know what your customers really want and are you committed to going to a little extra trouble to give them what they want, or are you treating them all the same?" he asks in his corporate newsletter.

• There are two types of negotiators. The first is the type who overpromises and underdelivers. The second type understates and overdelivers. Which type are you?
  (Source: Achieve-IT blog)



• Time management consultant Kelly Forrister warns not to agree to meetings that start the moment you walk in the door in the morning, before you check and process your e-mail. Otherwise, there's a good chance that your attention will be on what's lurking in e-mail and not on the meeting.
  (Source: Simply GTD With Kelly)



• When customers say, "I can't afford it," that's not what they mean. What they mean is: "It's not worth it." Marketing guru Seth Godin says the solution is not to lower your price but to tell a better, more accurate story about your product or service and to tell it to the right people.
  (Source: Seth's Blog)



• A happy office is a productive office. Consultant Michael Kerr suggests giving colleagues a laugh to start the day by leaving a fun welcome greeting on their voice mails -- a short joke, funny quote, little song, or wacky thought of the day.
  (Source: The Hump Day Humor-Gram)



• In presentations, consider replacing tables with simple bar graphs to make the message you want to deliver clear. Waving a laser pointer over various figures in a table is not nearly as effective.
  (Source: Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog)

Do you -- and your colleagues -- really want to break this pattern? There can be an enormous satisfaction in working close to a deadline and coming through in the crunch. All our skills are focused intently on the task at hand, and we seem to be sharper and more skilled than at any other time, the adrenalin rush and coffee and beat-the-deadline completion of the task leading to a rapturous high. We also have stories of our triumph against the deadline that we can tell to others.

Unfortunately, that feeling of super-accomplishment is probably deceptive. A study led by Harvard University's Teresa Amabile found that although people feel they are most productive under deadline pressure they are actually the least creative when fighting the clock. Indeed, time pressure creates a hangover: Productivity went down not only that day but also the next two days.

Since breaking the pattern involves your mind more than any system, think about that study. Think about the lull -- the fogginess and tiredness -- the day after the deadline is met rather than the high of the hours before the deadline. Also, think of what might have been. Imagine you had finished a few days earlier, and had time to review your work with fresh eyes, and tweak. I do a lot of deadline work and I know when I have that chance for unconscious and conscious reflection on my work before submitting it, I am always happier with the end product.

If you truly want to change, the solution is obvious. You need to give yourself earlier signposts -- deadline if you will -- in which the work will be done. For most projects, there actually is sufficient time to build in a reflective pause, if you start earlier -- the amount of time opens up because you are doing everything else in your work life earlier as well. Same schedule, in effect, moved up by a few days (and because everything is ahead of deadline, more flexibility arises).

For some projects, of course, there isn't sufficient time because they start late due to somebody else's needs or the work you need to do at the end is dependent on other stages that require a lot of extra time. In those cases, see if you can bargain for more project time -- you'll be surprised at how often you can, with internal and external partners. Often the deadlines we are handed are more flexible than they appear, if you can clarify the improved end product that will result.

But again, you -- and your colleagues -- have to want to change. Once that hurdle is overcome, the rest is just negotiation, planning, and self-discipline, none of which is easy but all of which are achievable if you want to make the transformation.

External audiences are important in communications planning, but recently we've been hearing more from clients concerned about internal audiences. You may have similar issues:

• Perhaps you're changing strategy and need staff buy-in for a new direction.



• Communication gaps between departments may be generating complaints from customers.



• You may be implementing new technology that changes how staff work, making them anxious or leaving them confused -- which means you must include a strong communications plan as part of your change management approach.



• Or sometimes your team just isn't getting along for some mysterious reason, and it turns out weak interpersonal communication skills are the core problem.

8020Info offers counsel to help you communicate effectively with your internal stakeholders. We would be pleased to discuss your needs and welcome enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com.