Cunningham Public Lecture - "Teaming: How the learning organization works"

Amy Edmonson, Novartis Professor, Harvard Business School

Date: October 31, 2011
Location: Goodes Hall, Room 406
Time: 2:30–4:00

This talk presents the core ideas from my forthcoming book, Teaming: How organizations learn, innovate and compete in the knowledge economy, which reviews and translates for practice a body of research investigating interpersonal dynamics that affect organizational learning. Teaming is the dynamic activity through which interdependent work is carried out; the term puts the emphasis on action – on how work unfolds – rather than on teams as bounded entities. I suggest that an organization’s ability to learn—to improve organizational actions through better knowledge and understanding—is shaped by the actions and interactions of individuals in fluid team-based arrangements. By making appropriate changes in how work is done (driven by both group and organizational goals), teaming helps an organization maintain or enhance its effectiveness in a changing world. This perspective on organizational learning emerged via research in settings ranging from the front lines of health care delivery to the Space Shuttle program at NASA to the management boardroom. It emphasizes the debilitating effects of interpersonal fear and examines the role of leadership in counteracting these effects.

The talk will explain teaming, describe its role in the learning organization, present barriers and enablers to its occurrence, and conclude with the role of leaders and distributed leadership in making it happen. I will discuss data from three current field studies in entrepreneurship, emergency departments, and software teams to illustrate teaming as a new way of working, organizing to learn as a new way of leading, and execution-as-learning as a new way of operating.

Past Cunningham Visitors

Peter Salovey, 2010

Faculty, alumni, staff, graduate and undergraduate students and members of the Kingston community participated in the Inaugural QSB Cunningham Visit in September.

QSB Cunningham Visitor, Peter Salovey, (Provost at Yale University and Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology) created and introduced the concept of emotional intelligence in 1990 in a paper with John D. Mayer. The impact of EI is apparent in terms of academic research (i.e., there is now a large literature on a concept that was introduced just 20 years ago) and teaching (e.g., some business schools have added the training of emotional competencies into their curriculums), and in the managerial practice of many organizations (e.g., several companies now incorporate EI into employee development programs). The general public is also interested in EI, and their interest appears to be growing.

During his visit, Dr. Salovey met with individuals and small groups and presented a Research Seminar on Message Framing To Encourage Healthy Behaviour and a Public Lecture on Emotional Intelligence. Interest extended well beyond the School of Business, with enthusiastic numbers in attendance from Policy Studies, Kinesiology, Psychology, Health Counselling and other departments across campus.

The Douglas G. Cunningham Visitorship Endowment Fund was established through a pledge commitment by Royal Trust, to enable Queen’s University to bring distinguished speakers to campus each year from the field of applied social sciences, with emphasis on law, business and industrial relations.

We expect that the Queen’s Community and beyond will watch for this annual QSB event in the future.