Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Development and Learning in Organizations, Volume 24, Issue 2
The thread that seems to weave its way through the cloth of the journal this month is one of “connection” – with oneself, with others,between groups and between organizations.
Ian Cunningham, in the Viewpoint, calls for a greater focus on the benefits that can arise from leaders being assisted to really connect with one another– both to challenge and support each other. His fierce critique of much of the development activity in academia deserves serious reflection. And as L&D professionals, we also need to act.
Continuing with the leadership theme, Joan F. Marques shares her view on“Awakened leadership”. Buddha – who might seem a strange character to encounter within these pages – sits alongside more modern day people such as Mother Theresa and Howard Shultz of Starbucks. She proposes five essential requirements to move towards being more wakeful; all five require a deeper level of connection with ourselves. How many of these do we support in our leadership development offerings and interventions?
Mike Schraeder and David J. Hoover take a practical look at what leaders can do to ease peoples’ passage through the still somewhat stormy waters of the last two years of economic meltdown. They provide a number of pragmatic steps that leaders can take to enhance each stakeholder’s sense of connection and commitment to the future success of the organization.
An interesting case study of collaboration across four UK universities is offered by Virendra Mistry. Universities are highly competitive in their drive for student numbers, the best lecturers, the highest research rating, etc. In the area of e-learning however, these universities reaped real benefits through connecting, sharing and exploring with others in the same field.
Our understanding of e-learning is continually changing as the technology develops at rapid speed. Mervyn Levin shines the spotlight on two areas –“serious gaming” and “virtual worlds”. The saving of$320,000 through virtually connecting 200 people for a three-day global conference is one impressive example of their application.
The first two of our review pieces deal with organization-wide information technology (IT) change. One looks at the organizational development implications of moving to an integrated system for all business data and processes. The other explores the opportunities for learning available to organizations, which outsource some or all of their IT activities.
Our third article provides a number of ideas on what has and can be done to help sustain and renew an organization – both during and as we surface from a massive downturn. Historical and more recent examples are outlined.
Our last review piece highlights the leadership development model adopted by one of the banks that met the financial meltdown in far better health than most of its competitors – Santander.
Which leads me nicely onto the theme of our special issue for 2010 –leadership development. We will be looking at what models and practices are emerging in the field and considering how well they might serve the creation of effective organizational leaders. Please get in touch if you have any ideas or potential contributions.
Anne GimsonStrategic Developments International, UK. anne@stratdevint.com
