New LILA Theme announced: Ecologies of Learning in a Transforming World

This year (Fall 2019 - Summer 2020) LILA will explore the theme of Ecologies of Learning in a Transforming World.  If you are interested in applying for membership, contact marga_biller@harvard.edu.  Below is the description of the learning arc for the year. The world is transforming and it’s changing the ways we work, make decisions, adapt, learn and interact - in other words, the rules of the game have shifted impacting current business models. The digital economy is a primary driver. The way we view careers and who is “in” the workforce has expanded. The possibilities and combinations for learning and performing have morphed and multiplied. Stakeholders interact with each other to create new products and services. As the boundaries of organization become more porous, innovations originate from diverse sources. So how do organizations stay ahead of this transformation in order to grow their business? Learning ecologies offers a perspective on how organizations can develop new capabilities, organize work, and manage careers in order to take advantage of the new world order. The idea of a learning ecology recognizes that learning is unfolding all the time in complex ways, through peer relationships, networks, informal coaching, the way people interact in person and virtually, etc. which can be learning-synergistic or not. What people are learning includes not only particular skills and understandings that formal learning might target, but also the "hidden curriculum" – how to informally pick up on the patterns of survival and thriving within the organization. This theme will aim to explore and answer questions such as: What More »

Be Collectively Mindful: Reflections from the LILA Summit

While the Summit featured many opportunities to reflect on the insights and practical application of what we have learned throughout the year on how to foster collective mindfulness, here is a brief recap as shared by David Perkins highlighting some key More »

Join us for the 13th Annual LILA Summit with Rob Cross and Ryan Quinn

This has been another intriguing year at LILA as we have taken on the theme of Collective Mindfulness: Shaping the Human Systems in Organizations. I hope that you will join us at this year’s LILA Summit on June 12th in Cambridge where the two keynote speakers are Rob Cross and Ryan Quinn. They will be joined by six past LILA faculty who will share their latest research with participants during small group conversations. In these sessions, you will have an opportunity to exchange ideas on how the research can inform your individual and organizational practices. The Summit is also a great occasion to meet and interact with the broader LILA community, including faculty, researchers, and current and past members, and to get a better sense as to who we are as a learning community and what you might experience as a More »

How to spot collective mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a challenge of attention allocation. We tend to have both eyes on the current main thing, everything else is on autopilot. Mindful means were moving the main thing along and keeping one eye out for the yellow flags we might More »

Becoming Collectively Mindful

When struggling to gain collective mindfulness in your organization, it could be useful to examine the role of collective identity in supporting or undermining collective mindfulness. You may find that, even though a clear purpose and goal have been set forth, there are still pockets of the organization that are not moving forward in a collective way. Is it due to a weak collective identity, or maybe to a strong collective identity that overrides collective mindfulness? More »