6.10 What Does This Mean for the
Internal Consultant?
Organizational learning skills and the recognition
by internal consultants of the level of organizational maturity to learn are
both critical success factors for any change initiative. They are critical for
both the organization as well as for you on a personal level. Imagine trying to
work with an organization to implement a new process if the organization is not
open to learning and applying new ideas. How successful do you think you would
be in this scenario? How successful do you think you would be if the
organization essentially refused to adopt new ideas? If it blamed individuals
for failure? If it didn’t recognize the negative effect that not learning new
ideas had on the soft skills and the organization’s culture? The answer is
obvious; the initiative in which you were involved would most likely fail. In
fact, you probably would be blamed for the failure.
As an internal consultant, what can you do to
correct this problem? You can try to educate the organization to the value of
learning and applying new skills. Examples of group learning and its
application to the process of change may help the leadership see the light.
However, the things that make an organization one that refuses or resists
learning are often rooted in how they apply the soft skills and also in the way
that the organizational culture has been established and perpetuated. These are
things that, as an internal consultant, you will find very difficult to change
without site support. You can not change them on your own! Your best bet is to
make certain that you have clients that will support the learning process and
help the organization make the transition. Otherwise, you should not get
involved in initiatives with groups that refuse to learn. However, as an
internal consultant, you often do not have this luxury. When you find yourself
in this position, you need to get support to help you create a learning
organization where it may not have existed before. You also need support to
help prepare the site for a great deal of frustration and a high likelihood of
failure of the initiative if they refuse to embrace group learning as a part of
their change process.
Five Things to Think About or Do
1. Make a checklist for yourself. List the traits
you would look for in an organization to determine if it is a learning
organization.
2. Review you list of traits against the way that
your organization functions. Is your organization a learning organization or
not? What traits are missing? If it is a learning organization, write out
several specific examples that make your case. If not, what traits are missing
and how can you help your organization acquire them?
3. Does your organization fit the blaming model
when things happen that negatively impact the business? If this is the case,
write out several examples. What would need to be changed to create a true
learning organization to replace the current model?
4. Think of an initiative that has been successful.
How did the element of group learning as it relates to the eight elements of
change and the four elements of culture support the success?
5. Think of an initiative that was not successful.
How did the lack of group learning related to the eight elements of change and
the four elements of culture help the initiative to fail?