Summary

The notion of the learning organization--popularized by management thinkers and extolled by leaders of today's most progressive companies--is finally made practical for modern managers in Working Wisdom. Robert Aubrey and Paul M. Cohen offer a unique blAnd of historical context and contemporary examples from such worldwide companies as Dun & Bradstreet, LifeScan, Spectra-Physics, and Raychem to demonstrate how the new role of manager as learning guide can help build the capacity for competitive advantage. The authors show managers how to use existing resources and the age-old skills of providing capable guidance and nurturing personal experiences to make the learning organization a reality.

Through a wealth of case studies--from international businesses, governments, and nonprofit organizations--and a grounded historical perspective in adult learning and personal development, the authors identify five tactics that wise managers use to trigger and enhance learning experiences at work. They also guide leaders through the organizational initiatives essential to supporting the new role for managers, demonstratating how to establish learning leadership, leverage the wisdom of middle managers, build learning networks, use technology, tackle public policy issues, and create learning alliances.

Booklist Review

The concept of the "learning organization" as conceived by Peter Senge in his Fifth Discipline (1990) is a popular one in management literature today. Building on Senge's framework, Aubrey and Cohen emphasize the role of "practical wisdom" and examine ways for both the individual and the organization to take advantage of this resource. They examine developments that are changing the nature of work, tactics to produce effective learning, and strategies for implementing learning. Aubrey is a Paris-based management consultant and author of Savoir Faire Savoir (Knowing How to Know), winner of the French Dauphine prize for best business book in 1991. Cohen edits the Tom Peters Group's newsletter On Achieving Excellence. Together they collaborated on rewriting this book, which originally appeared in French and was written by Aubrey and Bruno Tilliette. --David Rouse

Library Journal Review

Management consultant Aubrey and Cohen, the editor of the Tom Peters Group newsletter, believe that wisdom is an essential attribute for managers in today's organizations, where continuous learning is emphasized and maintaining employability is a necessity. Wisdom is defined, in part, as "a personal capacity acquired through experience and thinking [and] the ability to create learning experiences for others and manage learning processes in an organization." The authors identify five aspects of wisdom‘accompanying, sowing, catalyzing, showing, and harvesting‘and illustrate how individuals in selected organizations have successfully used them. They also look at the role of wisdom in the development of learning strategies for organizations and include illustrations from contemporary settings. Despite the breadth of their topic, the authors have delivered a concise, well-organized, and useful book, which will be of interest to those who want to develop either individual mentoring skills or organizational learning strategies. Recommended for business collections.‘Mark McCullough, Heterick Lib., Ohio Northern Univ., Ada (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.