| Organizations in America are attempting to improve. They are doing this by focusing on a long-term structured change that will produce substantial results. Many organizations are embracing Learning Organization principles as the foundation for their structure to improve. A Learning Organization is directed toward continuous learning in which people continually expand their capacity.; Training and development departments can be an integral part of transformational efforts and can play a key role contributing toward developing learners in the skills needed for the Learning Organization.; This dissertation identifies Accelerated Learning Techniques as strategies that can begin to create individuals who are needed in Learning Organizations. Collective research is examined to identify both the effectiveness of Accelerated Learning and Accelerated Learning's successful characteristics. Also, a relationship between Accelerated Learning and learner performance is demonstrated through a meta-analysis. Through the research, learning agility models that contribute to the development of individuals in the skills needed for a Learning Organization have evolved.; Successful Accelerated Learning characteristics, along with three major elements of Accelerated Learning are identified: relaxed alertness, orchestrated immersion, and active processing. From this, Individual Learning Agility Models evolve. The models align successful Accelerated Learning Characteristics with Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory and Peter Senge's Wheel of Learning. The model provides the practitioner with a process that may contribute to the development of an individual in the skills needed for Senge's Five Disciplines for a Learning Organization: systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, team learning, and shared vision.; Practical applications of the models are provided to suggest a lesson design that uses Accelerated Learning to ensure that most intelligences are addressed to account for learning diversity in the training and ultimately to contribute to the development of individuals in the skills needed for Senge's Five Disciplines for a Learning Organization.; The models offer a process that organizations can use. Also offered are conclusions and recommendations derived from research findings. |
