07 Jun The Executive Committee

In the USA there has grown up an organisation which was originally called ‘The Executive Committee’ (TEC for short – and confusingly for Brits!). TEC (US style) has brought together Chief Executives of usually medium sized companies to work in ways that are, in part, similar to an SML learning group. Except, that their groups are about 12 people and they do not have strategic learning contracts (so the focus tends to be more on short-term problem solving). Allowing for that they have been very effective in providing support for CEO’s.

One other dimension of their operation is that their one-day meetings are divided between an afternoon on problem solving, learning in the group and a morning with an invited speaker.

Ian Cunningham ran two of these morning sessions for CEOs in the Baltimore Washington DC area in February. His focus on SML and strategic learning, not surprisingly, struck a chord and the local TEC chair (who acts in a facilitative mode with the group) is pushing the use of SML in the area.