Designing the Smart Organization: How Breakthrough Corporate Learning Initiatives Drive Strategic Change and Innovation

Designing the Smart Organization

How breakthrough corporate learning initiatives drive strategic change and innovation

Roland Deiser

Praise for Designing the Smart Organization

"Without any qualification and only with heartfelt enthusiasm, this book should be read immediately by every leader in every institution. My excitement is based on three profound contributions that Deiser's book offers: 1) the single best argument and summary of 'organizational learning' and its significance, 2) ten brilliant and powerful case studies which illustrate his concepts and tremendously practical action steps, 3) this book is especially useful right now in these times when all organizations are facing uncertainty, chaos, and crises. What could be more important to organizational systems and their leaders than to learn, adapt, and recover from these setbacks!"
—Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business at the University of Southern California, author of On Becoming a Leader, and coauthor of Transparency and Judgment

"A smart, useful book; but it is more than just that. With logic and examples, Roland helps us realize just how much we must regrind our lenses for seeing how deep learning can naturally happen in an organization if we just move beyond traditional notions of corporate training and re-conceive learning as a strategic imperative. I highly recommend this book for any corporate leader who wants to succeed in a rapidly changing world."
—John Seely Brown, independent co-chairman, Deloitte Center for the Edge; former chief scientist of Xerox Corp and director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC); and coauthor, The Social Life of Information and The Only Sustainable Edge

"[This book is] filled with knowledge and insight about the challenges learning organizations face in the transition from a traditionalist mindset to a forward-looking perspective on learning strategy. If learning organizations can't make this leap they are likely to be relegated to the back office."
—Michelle Marquard, director, corporate learning, Cisco Systems, Inc.