The Learning Organization
Technology with Integrity

Torian Group, Inc.

Current wisdom is that to succeed, your business must adapt and learn more quickly than your competition. We now live in a world where intellectual capital has become much more important than buildings and factory equipment. The knowledge you and your staff have are the main asset in your business. How do you develop and leverage this? 

Knowledge exists in individuals, in work groups, and in the company. Do you have a plan for preserving and spreading this knowledge? Do you have a knowledge management strategy?

Our own best practices:
We use technology to leverage, organize, and store what we know, and to communicate effectively. We have written best practices which are continually undergoing review. We utilize web access, PDA's, cell phones, and try to be our own best client for Technology Planning. We are always experimenting with new technologies and techniques. We have written custom software to integrate our time management, client relationship management, and accounting systems.
Our staff meets regularly for training on their areas of professional development. Some of also teach at COS and local technical schools.
We maintain a library of resources - books, audio and video tapes, CBT's etc.
Training is built in to job requirements, and staff training progress is reviewed weekly. Staff members teach what they know to their peers. We make use of vendor certification tests as a measure of progress.
We started and support the Visalia NT user's group, and work to build community among our technical peers to share resources and support each other's professional and personal development.
We cultivate work situations which match the learning needs of our staff - staff members have the opportunity to apply the training they receive, and the client gets a tech that matches the skill level needed to do the job. 
Learning about learning is built in to our business structure - we are constantly looking to improve, and have systems in place to gather and implement good ideas.

Resources:

The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge  
This is the book that started it all.

Building the Learning Organization by Michael Marquardt
McGraw Hill, ISBN: 0-07-040534-4
Good summary - Types of Organizational knowledge, ways of learning, Building a corporate culture, etc.

Web links:

These have more than enough links to get you as far as you want to go with this concept.

MIT Learning Organization site Books and other resources.

Index of Learning Organization Web Sites