Chapter 11: Inventing Organizations with the Process Handbook - Excerpts from a Learning History

Nina Kruschwitz George Roth

Introduction

A learning history is an account of events that took place in an organization, or a group of organizations, told through the differing perspectives of the many people involved. Its purpose is to help the participants, as well as other both inside and outside the organization, to learn from what occurred. This chapter is comprised of excerpts from a learning history about a research project undertaken as part of MIT's Initiative on Inventing the Organizations of the 21st Century. The excerpts here focus on events that led to some of the most important results of the project. Other parts of the original learning history focus on the benefits, and challenges, of partnerships involving university researchers and corporate sponsors (Krushwitz and Roth 1999).