Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

GROUP LEARNING
Retreat. An emersion process where participants commit to learning, sharing and social
interaction focused on key challenges, questions, and emergent findings. Uses dialogue to
strengthen relationships, develop shared understanding and meaning and facilitate mutual
support. Can be used to jumpstart development of a learning community or community of
practice.
Seminars. A short, intensive course focused on a specific topic or area of research.
Brown Bag Seminars. Scheduled during a meal period (for example, lunch) with
participants invited to bring and eat their meal during the seminar. Informal structure
with a planned speaker followed by open discussion.
Speaker Series. Formal talks by an expert, policy maker, advocate or other stakeholder,
followed by a question and answer session. An opportunity to bring external stakeholders
into the utility as subject matter experts, with simultaneous learning and relationship
building. Employees can play an active role; for example, through suggesting lecture topics
and SMEs. Whether on location or off location, series could be made available to all
employees through live streaming via the Internet, then archived online and accessible for
future use such as new employee orientation.
Stand-down. The stand-down is based on a military approach used to support a specific
behavior change. In a utility, this would be a one-day stop-work community event focused
on conveying focused information (and potentially associated skills). This event demands
hands-on top leadership/management participation, including the sharing of stories.
Workshops. Workshops are content-rich experiences revolving around discussion, study
and experimentation. They provide the opportunity for one-on-one and group interactions.
Since content may significantly different for specific employee groups, attendance may be
focused and segmented.
See:
Project Study #3 (City of Moline Water Division, IL)
Tools: Action Learning
Collaborative Problem Solving Forum
Dialogue
Storyboards
Storytelling
H-10
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