ABSTRACT
In chapter 10, we spoke about a process of empowering people. We spoke of the energy of the community to govern itself when the individual members of the community feel empowered to be themselves, when their work is connected to the work of others in the community, and when they feel energized by core ideas and values of the community. In this chapter, we consider more structural ways of building a learning community. Assuming that the primary work of a learning community is continuous learning-revealed in the construction of meaning, community, and responsibility-we want to put in place administrative structures that facilitate that primary work of the community while enhancing the ability of the community to govern itself around that central focus. In other words, the self-governance of the community should be exercised in and through its work. We first look at the need for a culture of commitment to this common purpose. We then turn explicitly to organic management and its focus on the primary work of the school, student learning. Two aspects of organic management-the principle of subsidiarity and the dynamic of job enrichmentfurther develop our understanding.
