Developing Third-Generation Learning Organizations: A Heuristic Discovery Process

The future belongs to organizations with active knowledge-creating, agile individuals and cultures. Research has shown that such cultures emerge when people are developing their skills and capabilities, and that the greatest catalyst for human development is the maturity level of the institutions of which they are part. At the same time, history has demonstrated that, to become such an organization, leaders need to first undergo their own personal transformation and embrace the ambiguity and uncertainty of the current and foreseeable business environment. They then need to support similar transformation across other levels of the organization.This book offers both the theory and methodology needed to implement such development, along with case studies that highlight key steps in the process. Drawing on the theoretical and methodological work of Peter Senge, Michael Ray, Willis Harman, Michael Polanyi, Scott Peck, and others, it outlines a process for developing and maintaining an organization in which the development of people leads to enhanced profitability.

About the Author :
After earning degrees in Anthropology, Environmental Studies, and Cybernetic Systems, Ruth-Ellen L Miller worked as a futurist with Willis Harman at SRI International and Harold Linstone at the Futures Research Institute before earning a PhD in Systems Science from Portland State University. Her research focus is cultural cybernetics, with an emphasis on the role of individual and collective consciousness in cultural dynamics. Currently Director of the Gaia Living Systems Institute on the Oregon coast, Dr Miller has written numerous books on the history of consciousness research, is the host of the radio show Noetic Moments on KXCR-FM, and teaches independent workshops on applied metaphysics and cultural dynamics.Kazimierz Gozdz earned the B.S. in Chemistry and Business Administration, then managed an industrial food manufacturing plant. His experience there led him to study community building with M. Scott Peck, new-paradigm business practices with Michael Ray at Stanford University, learning organization processes with Peter Senge at the MIT Organizational Learning Center, and transpersonal psychology with Robert Frager, earning a Ph.D. from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA. Based on that work, Dr. Gozdz founded the Helix Group, LLC, which facilitates large scale organizational development and community building in private and public corporations, military organizations, and family businesses.