The 10th Annual
"Conference for Learning Organizations"
October 27, 2004
Executive Summary:
For the 10th consecutive year, The Learning Consortium is proud to produce the Conference for Learning Organizations. The event will be held on October 27, 2004 at the Civic Center and Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC.
Paraphrasing Christopher Alexander from his book, A Timeless Way of Building,
"...We shall begin to see in detail how the rich and complex order of a community or an organization can grow from thousands of creative acts. For once we have a common pattern language and we shall all have the power to make our departments and services live, through our most ordinary acts.
"And in a organization a pattern language is a source of life, above all, because it helps to generate the wholes, from the cooperation of the individual acts. In our community, in our organization the language, like a seed, is the genetic system which gives our millions of small acts the power to form a whole".
Ten Years ago we began this conference with the idea of building a "learning
community" here in the Triangle region of North Carolina, and there are signs that a foundation has been laid.
This year is the celebration of the people who have been a part of creating the learning community, geographically and inside their own organizations.
We will celebrate our great community builders!
Margaret Wheatley, Victor Davis Hanson and Bernice King will explore
the issue of effective communication (the language) as they focus on the
sustainability of where we live and where we work.
For the 10th year, Charlotte Roberts will, once again, be our "Theme
Weaver" for this special day. Charlottešs career has been invested in building
"learning organizations" and "learning communities" and will bring great
perspective to our day.
Victor Davis Hanson brings the point of view of a historian, a writer, and a teacher of history. He can answer as to what are the ways throughout history, that communities have sustained themselves. What did they have in common? What are points that can destroy a community?
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Agenda and Corporate Sponsorship
Speakers' Profiles
Charlotte Roberts
Theme Weaver
Victor Davis Hanson
Carnage and Culture
Margaret Wheatley
Turning to One Another
Bernice King
Hard Questions, Heart Answers
Margaret Wheatley is an author, lecturer, and consultant with a global reputation. Meg has worked in the fields of systems thinking, organizational behavior, and social policy, and will bring great perspective to our learning on the "language of community". In her new book Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future (January 2002, Berrett-Koehler Publishers) she has written, as she says, "from the belief that we might change the world if we just begin listening to one another again. Great social change movements have often begun from the simple act of friends talking to each other about their fears and dreams". As has happened every time she has been here, Meg will leave us inspired, focused, and ready to move
forward.
It is a great honor to have Bernice King as part of our program. We met Dr. King in Raleigh for a celebration of her fatheršs life, the late Martin Luther King, Jr. We were truly moved by her words about community, purpose, and individual accountability. Dr. King will help us focus on what we can do for our families, communities, and
organizations.
Last year's sponsors included: UNC HealthCare, Duke University Health System, Cisco Systems, GlaxoSmithKline, BCBS of North Carolina, Wake County Government, IBM, Microsoft, Wachovia, The Herald Sun, SAS Institute, State of North Carolina and more.
We encourage sponsors, teams, and individuals to come to the event with their own
sense of purpose. Engage your colleagues before you attend to talk about your
community at work:
_ Is it the way you want it to be?
_ How could it be improved?
_ Is it sustainable in its present state?
After the conference, reconvene and begin to discuss what you learned and think of
ways to apply the lessons of the conference. Let us know if we can help on this.
We are proud to have done this particular conference for 10 years, and know that
your investment in this event will have great dividends for all of us, and, for our
communities!!!
Howard & Lynda Schultz
The Learning Consortium
212 West Barbee Chapel Road
Suite 301
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
(919) 960-4007
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