Learning Groups

The Range of Learning Groups

  1. The New Economics Course
  2. The Safety Group
  3. CEO Group
  4. People Matter Group
  5. The Thinking Managers Group
  6. The Data Club
  7. The Applied Systems Club
  8. Learning Systems group

1. The New Economics - A course lead by Dr Tony Miller of Robert Gordon University which will take us through Deming's classic book The New Economics. It will include consideration of his "System of Profound Knowledge" The meeting are to be held on the first Monday of each month, starting 1st November 2004. Meeting to start at 5.30 pm in room C221 of RGU Schoolhill. For more details contact

For further information please contact Tony Miller at a.j.miller@rgu.ac.uk

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2. The Safety Group - led by David McAra. The group meets on the last Monday of each month at Vetco Gray, Broadford Road, Bridge of Don. Starting at 5.00pm.

Aim:

  1. To establish a group of Safety Professionals to sit with their respected peers, outside the pressure of their own organisation, to share cutting edge thinking with each other.
  2. The purpose would be to learn from each other for the benefit of all

Opening Thoughts: In a complex and ever changing world it is so easy in day to day operations to adopt a reactive mentality and be constrained by our own paradigms. But what of other ways - can we set up structures to challenge and evolve our thinking. Can we learn from our peers and can we also learn from those who would question traditional management concepts.

For further information please contact David McAra at david@mcara.net

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3. The CEO group - led by Gordon Charlton, the meetings are held every two months usually from 9.00am to 2.00pm. The members of the group comprise the CEOs of organisations that are members of the DLN.

The range of topics varies considerably but the basic theme is the implementation of modern management thinking and the establishment of an organisational learning system within the CEO's organisation.

For further information please contact Gordon Charlton at gordon.charlton@aberdeenop.co.uk

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4. The People Matter Group - led by David Beare. The group meets on the first Thursday of each month, at 5.30pm in room C221 of RGU Schoolhill. The terms of reference of the group are:

  • Aim: The aim of the People Matter Group is to grow our understanding and knowledge on the interaction between human behaviour and organisations.
  • Focus: We will address ways in which organisations can be created to which people will willingly commit themselves.
  • Output: The output of our activities will be practical tools that can be applied by managers to improve organisational effectiveness.
  • Context: We will seek ways to integrate their work with Deming's System of Profound Knowledge.
  • Constituency: We will encourage a wide constituency of views by encouraging contributions from practicing managers, practitioners in personal and organisational development, and from those with academic and professional interests in the contribution that human behaviour makes to organisations.

For further information please contact David Beare at dbeare@inchkey.com

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5. The Thinking Managers Group- facilitated by Ian Fraser. The meetings take place at Petrofac, Bridge View, 1 North Esplanade West.

This group has evolved out of the Thinking Manages course that, over an 18 month period, looked at the implications of Deming's 14 points that show us a way 'Out of the Crisis."

The focus of the group is to be around the theme of implementation/application of Deming's theories - the problems, successes etc. of trying, or not trying, to 'walk the talk'

The reconstituted group will be starting to meet after the New Year

For further information please contact Ian Fraser at iancynth@btinternet.com

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6. The Data Club - this is to be a new group starting in the 2005, facilitated by Gordon Hall and mentored by Tim Stapenhurst of Sigma Consultancy. Each member will require to have acquired a control chart package. The format of group meetings will be that participants will bring along data, in control chart form, and with the help of their peers spend time analysing the data and securing "knowledge from the data." The group will, obviously, required to maintain confidentiality of the data discussed.

For further information please contact Gordon Hall at g.hall@dln.org.uk

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7. The Applied Systems Club - another new group to be started in the New Year - facilitated by Gordon Hal and mentored by Peter Fraser. The participants will require to have a deployment flowmapping package and they will have portrayed their systems or process on a flow map. The purpose of the group is to analyse systems and with their peers seek ways to improve their system

For further information please contact Gordon Hall at g.hall@dln.org.uk

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8. Learning System Group - the third of these new groups for 2005 will be in context of the development of a learning system and culture within member organisations. As above it will allow members who have the responsibility for organisational learning within their enterprise to meet and discuss their challenges with their peers. It will be facilitated by Gordon Hall.

For further information please contact Gordon Hall at g.hall@dln.org.uk

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