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BACK COVER

If you've read Billibonk & the Thorn Patch and wish you could benefit from a little mouse mentoring, you're in luck! Let Frankl the mouse take you by the trunk…er, hand, and guide you through the thorny patches in your own organization.

The Fieldbook explores what can encourage organizational learning and what sometimes makes it difficult. Use the Fieldbook to:

§ Understand what organizational learning is, and decide whether it is important for your organization
§ Think about how the lessons Billibonk learned might apply to you
§ Plan actions that will make a difference to your organization or team

Frankl also introduces concepts and techniques that can help your organization get the results you care about, including:

§ Why it's better to create the system you want than to react to one you don't understand
§ How to recognize important patterns without oversimplifying
§ How to use diagrams to grasp key causal relationships
§ How to reframe problems in ways that stimulate your curiosity
§ Why sharing a purpose moves a team beyond game playing
§ How to recognize and work with "undiscussables" and conversational dilemmas so you can talk with others about what really matters

Includes tips for introducing children to systems thinking!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Welcome to My Fieldbook!
What Is Organizational Learning?
Defining a Problem
Living Systems
Reacting vs. Creating
Game Playing
Things You Can't Discuss
Conversational Dilemmas
Organizational Problems: Three Common Patterns
Putting It All Together
Important Practice
A Goodbye

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Phil Ramsey has worked at Massey University in New Zealand for 12 years, teaching and conducting research in training and development and organizational learning. He is the author of the book Successful On-the-Job Training (Palmerston North, NZ: Dunmore Press, 1993) and Billibonk & the Big Itch, the second volume in the Billibonk series. Billibonk and the Thorn Patch is Phil's first work of fiction.

Phil and his family live in Palmerston North, New Zealand. While they occasionally share their house with itinerant mice, sadly they don't know any elephants.