Market Oriented Organizational Learning and Sensemaking

Long-term survival of the firm in a turbulent, global marketplace demands continuous learning, action and change. How are individual views translated into a "COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL MIND?" How are disparate individual beliefs regarding market reality reconciled into a collective belief system that motivates cooperative action? This book spotlights a vital learning component within strategy development endeavors... ORGANIZATIONAL SENSEMAKING DIALOGUES... which are moments when discussants openly share, construct, critique and update their beliefs about a changing market reality. The findings presented here are based on an 18-month corporate ethnography to obtain actual first-hand field observations of shared strategic sensemaking within executive boardroom meetings. Practitioners receive a "fly on the wall" view of actual unfolding corporate dramas when meeting discussants attempt to openly share their individual views of market reality. Academics receive a treasure-trove of relevant literatures and concepts integrated into a PROCESS MODEL OF STRATEGIC DIALOGUE that illustrates how company members can avoid "shared learning disconnects" while serving as sensemakers for their firm.