Leading Organizational Learning

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Learning at the Speed of Flight

Fred Harburg

Almost every executive has at one time or another felt over-
whelmed at work and lamented the time starvation and relentless
sense of confusion associated with it. E-mail was supposed to help,
but it seems instead to have added to the problem. Most executives
feel like they are flying blind and that the pace and turbulence are
accelerating every day. What if executives had the same quality of
systems and guidance that our best aviators have to help them get
the right people to the right place at the right time with the right
knowledge? What if executives had expert assistance from the most
qualified advisers and used the best systems to integrate complicated
information and help them achieve the mission with greater ease
and effectiveness? What if they had expert help in identifying what
they needed to learn and were then able to find the best source and
method of learning at the touch of a button? This may sound like a
fantasy, but it is becoming a reality for some executives. In today’s
demanding and confusing world, Motorola and other major corpo-
rations are beginning to provide interactive leadership support
systems that help executives and their teams learn and perform with
greater relevance, convenience, timeliness, and ease.

Simplifying the Complex

As a former Air Force pilot, I am intimately aware that the world
of aviation represents a good example of the effective interplay
between human beings and information processing technology in
a complex environment.

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