About SoL

The Society for Organizational Learning, SoL, is a global network connecting organizations, researchers and consultants to create and implement knowledge for fundamental innovation and change. SoL was founded in 1997 as a successor to the MIT Center for Organizational Learning, led by Peter Senge and a group of innovative companies committed to advancing the state–of–the–art in building learning organizations. Today, communities in over 30 locations around the globe engage in an impressive diversity of organizational learning activities. SoL organizations include:

AT&T
ARC Seibersdorf research GmbH
BP
Bonduelle
British Telecom
The Coca–Cola Company
la Confédération nationale du Credit Mutuel
Danfoss Socla
Fischer GmbH
FORBA
Ford Motor Company
France Télécom
Gedas
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Harley–Davidson
Klagenfurt University, School of Interdisciplinary Studies
INFOMEDIAservices GmbH
l'Institut Pasteur
Intel
Investkredit Bank AG
 MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry)
Mandl, Luethi & Partner
NHS
NSA, US Govt.
Nike
Petrotrin
Plug Power
Rocky Mountain Institute
Saudi Aramco
Shell
Solvay
Austrian Research Promotion Agency
Unilever
Unedic
UTC
Visteon Corporation
Vienna Science and Technology Fund
World Bank – International Finance Corp.
Wyeth Europa
University Linz, Center for Knowledge Management

From its inception, SoL was intended to be a self organizing global network of learning communities. SoL communities have been established or are emerging in many countries, but the work of creating sufficient infrastructure to support SoL as a global entity remains unfinished. The founding SoL fractal —the oldest and most developed SoL community and the legal owner of the SoL name —has provided some elements of global infrastructure, such as the SoL website, and continues to provide support for establishing the minimal amount of structure needed to allow SoL to pursue its purpose on a global scale.

The 2003 Global Forum in Helsinki, Finland, represented a major step forward in the process of moving us from where we are now a network of SoL communities linked mainly by informal, personal relationships to where we want to be: a global community linked by a common idea of what it means to be a citizen of global SoL, operating democratically and non hierarchically; with a robust capacity for collective learning and coordinated action. At that meeting, we established a design team charged with building on the foundational work that has already taken place to propose a process for adopting governance and operational structures supportive of SoL communities around the world. That team has made a preliminary recommendation about how to take the process forward and has drafted self-amending guidelines for SoL citizenship. We will take the next steps toward the formation of a representative global governance body at this 2nd Global Forum in Fall 2005.