The following concepts are the major ideas presented in LMSI 2. It gives you a taste of some of tools that managers learned about. References are to the pages in the LMSI 2 book.

Have you seen any of these in action? Tracy mentioned the Shared Vision at the last all-staff meeting, for example. What kinds of changes have you seen in managerial practice from this training? What else would you like to see?

Have questions or ideas? Talk to any manager!

·       The Learning Organization, an idea advanced by Peter Senge, is an organization that has the capacity to create its own future. (p. 1)

·       The Creative Tension Model describes the creative energy between current reality and a shared vision, and uses that tension as a positive force to move toward the vision. (p. 7, p. 29)

·       Appreciative Inquiry is a technique of asking questions that open possibilities. Rather than asking "what's the problem," the focus is on what is going well. What works? What makes it work well, and how can we use that to improve? (p. 8)

·       Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures or images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action. (p. 11)

·       The Ladder of Inference -- yet another reminder of this important tool -- is a tool for better understanding how people's beliefs are formed and reinforced. It's used to reflect on one's beliefs, and to share beliefs and assumptions with others to increase transparency and understanding. (p. 11)

·       Systems Thinking has people reflect at different levels (events, patterns and structures) in order to identify new potential solutions to recurring or knotty problems. (p. 15)

·       A Skillful Discussion is a structured process for communicating in groups that elicits meaningful engagement from all members. (p. 20)

·       A Shared Vision is created by first engaging individuals in reflecting on their own vision for the organization, aligning that personal vision with personal values, identifying shared values, and finally describing the aspects of shared vision that can be understood and remain compelling at the individual level. (p. 25)

·       The Iceberg Analogy of Culture illustrates how an organizational culture is made up of artifacts (observable aspects of culture), espoused values (what your culture says it believes), and values-in-action (the values that are evidenced through behaviors). (p. 27)

As always, the MLI LibGuide has links to resources, LSMI books, etc. Take a look, and let the Design Team know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions (managers-forum-planners@mit.edu).
 
Best,
 
The MLI Design Team:
 
Grace Kindeke, Kim Maxwell, Lisa Horowitz, Molly McInerney, Rachael Weisz, Shannon Hunt, DeEtta Jones, Emily Goff, Chris Bourg, and Tracy Gabridge