Front-line stories of Emergent Learning disciplines

Since the look and feel of Emergent Learning disciplines varies widely to match an organization’s needs and culture, the best way to understand them is through examples of real-world challenges and solutions:

Nortel Networks brings lessons learned forward into project management

Nortel Networks' Supply Chain Management team wanted to come together to learn from its initial set of SCM deployments prior to launching into its next cycle. Many lessons had been collected, but in different formats, and focused mostly on improvements that were specific to each deployment. The whole team of 100+ people could not afford the luxury of a physical meeting, so they conducted a virtual knowledge sharing conference using EL Maps™ to structure the process.

In the course of two large virtual half-day conferences, interspersed with smaller sidebar meetings, the whole team identified ten key challenges going forward, based on the "on the ground" experience of real teams facing real implementation challenges around the world. They harvested lessons from these deployments to inform their plans. Each challenge was assigned an owner who was part of the next cycle of deployments to track and validate lessons learned going forward. In the process, they established connections with peers across geographical regions, created a consistently formatted document of lessons learned, and recognized the good work they had accomplished to-date.

More examples:

• Improving an annual planning process (Shell Oil)
• Making a transition in core business strategy (Fidelity Investments)
• Preparing for solid product launches (Harley-Davidson)
• Building shared responsibility for success in complex projects (Power Construction)
• Leveraging local accountability and data (Boston Police)
• Corporate transformation through local learning disciplines (DTE Energy)
• Preparing units to win the first battle of the next war (United States Army)