Bust the Silos: Genentech

Genentech: How the Active Organization Learns

"Effective teaching may be the hardest job there is." - William Glasser

Harry Wittenberg was the Senior Manager for Learning Technologies for Commercial Training and Development for Genentech, one of the leading biotech companies in the world, at the time this chapter was written. Any kind of electronically delivered learning experience comes through his 5 person group: website development, portal development, online assessments, online learning, virtual classrooms, web conference classes, synchronized remote distance learning, and podcasts.

They design with their users (the sales force); work with IT for infrastructure; work with outside vendors who actually build out some of the content and help them maintain it; and they may get involved with end user support.

Here is Harry’s perspective on making a learning organization operational.

How To Begin

"Anticipating that there would be major growth, I began with an extensive diagnostic study.  I wanted to understand the existing challenges for current employees; because I believed those challenges would exist for anyone new.  So I actually worked with a group of knowledge architects to help me create a taxonomy of what information a sales person would need and we did an extensive knowledge mapping session to really understand:

• What are the content areas they need to know?
• Where are they finding it now, what’s missing for them, what barriers do they have to get that knowledge?
• How much time are they spending looking for it?
• How often do they need it?
• From whom do they get information?
• Who do they need to deliver information to?"

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