Learning in action: a guide to putting the learning organization to work by David A. Garvin

Author:David A. Garvin [Garvin, David A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781578512515
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2000-04-28T05:00:00+00:00

The resulting program, with its seven-step model of change, was launched in 1992. To ensure acceptance, Welch paid for all of the initial training; in return, he insisted that the top managers at GE, including every company president, corporate officer, and senior executive, commit to seven days of classes spread over a ninety-day period. Attendance was mandatory. A year later, nearly 750 managers had participated, and the program was firmly established.

All participants come to CAP in teams, and each team brings a problem of its own to solve. At Welch’s insistence, the problems are “need to do, not nice to do”; they are competitive necessities. At GE Supply, the task was rolling out a quality improvement program to 120 geographically dispersed sites; at GE Plastics Japan, the task was turning around a business that had been unprofitable for five straight years; at GE Aircraft Engines, the task was reducing the cycle time from engine order to remittance; and at GE Lighting, the task was integrating separate technology groups into a single, global organization. Typically, problems are selected by business-unit presidents or leaders; if corporate services are involved, they are selected by department or function heads. As a further check on the process, in the early days Welch personally received lists of all current projects. This had the great advantage of ensuring that problems were of sufficient scale to warrant sustained commitment and attention. According to Jacquie Vierling, manager of Work-Out, Best Practices, and Change Acceleration:

People were always complaining, “I don’t have time to go away to Crotonville and learn.” So we said, “If it’s a strategic issue and you have to do it anyway, then coming to Crotonville is not time away from your work. It’s time away to work on your work.”

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