Internal Roundtables are Communities of Learning established to deepen learning within a business by articulating 'lessons learned' and rapidly disseminating these new learnings through out the business. This process is especially valuable in larger, multi location and multi national business in which knowledge capital spreads slowly even in the age of instant 'communication'. There are two basic types of internal Roundtables. If you think either one of these would be of value, contact REX to explore the possibilities. REX Getting Better Teams operate inside a single organization to complement the operational management team. The leadership of any organization is faced with the challenge of balancing two fundamental tasks: doing the job and getting better at doing that job. Balancing these two tasks is a challenge because they are incompatible. That is, "getting better" is in conflict with the "doing" or "getting by" agenda. Making improvements usually requires that we stop doing something long enough to figure out how to do it better. Getting better can be very difficult for at least four reasons: no time, no thought (on where to head), no help (from your team), no methods (to help you decide where to start and how to do it), and no discipline (to stick with it). A purely individual effort to change an organization rarely has the momentum to succeed—even when it comes from the top, and even when consultants have delineated a comprehensive theory and practice such as total quality management or reengineering. For more on how to get better see chapter 12 in Will Phillips book Responsible Managers Get Results. Naturally, we tend to use the normal hierarchical organization to manage and operate improvement activities. Experience reveals, however, that trying to use the normal structure for "getting better" efforts does not generally produce the desired results. The normal or operational structure is designed for the world of "doing." When we know what to do and we just need to get it done, the operational structure works very well. Getting better requires the organization to enter new territory by challenging old assumptions and creating new alternatives. The urgency, the results orientation, and the bureaucracy inherent in operational structures all tend to distract people from the new territory of improvement. Building and sustaining lasting improvement programs require that we separate the "getting better" activities from the "doing" or "getting by" activities and manage the improvement effort with a totally different set of structures, processes and procedures. This is the Getting Better Team. REX has produced a comprehensive manual on structuring and operating internal roundtables as Getting Better Teams. Typically, roundtable chairs help CEO members of a REX set up and operate a Getting Better Team. REX has also designed a three-day workshop to train members of an internal Getting Better Team. This workshop has been presented over ninety-five times. A Getting Better Team powerfully links the benefits of a CEO participating in an Executive Roundtable to the organization. See Transferring Roundtable Learning to Organizational Learning. REX Multiple Location Roundtables are set up in businesses with multiple locations where each location uses the same business model, such as a chain of retail stores, a health club with dozens of locations or a the local offices of a national brokerage firm. The RT consists of up to twenty location managers. Having the same business model enables performance comparisons to be made across key indicators. This database becomes the stimulus for the roundtable's agenda. How can each location learn from the others in order to improve performance? How can each location leader most effectively pursue personal and professional development? The RT does not include members from corporate headquarters, district or regional managers. These folks visit the RT now and then to provide their perspective and to hear from the local leaders. The chair mediates this connection. The power of this form of RT is the quality of the interaction and engagement between the location leaders. With the absence of superiors and the presence of a skilled chair the level of truth rises dramatically. Members speak more fully and openly. They challenge one another and hold their peers accountable in new and effective ways. A few years of a Multiple Location Roundtable can enable a chain to gain significant insight in how to manage multiple locations toward higher performance.