Position(s): Graduate Student, Department of Psychology; Associate, Center for Organizational Learning and Renewal; 2002 Vice President & Program Chair, Gateway Industrial/Organizational Psychologists

About Vicki Tardino: Vicki holds a Master's degree in Applied Experimental Psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (1996) and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1990). She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology at Saint Louis University.

In addition to her academic background, Vicki brings more than a decade of experience in research and consultation to COLR. Locally, she worked as an internal consultant to Trans World Airlines, Inc. specializing in management and organization development, and with GenAmerica University focusing on the development, delivery, and evaluation of leadership learning and other developmental activities. Vicki has also provided research consultation services to the U.S. Army and to the Department of Transportation (both in Massachusetts) in the areas of human factors and consumer research. The common threads weaving these experiences together are 1) a reliance on data based methods and 2) collaboration with stakeholders to enhance the processes and quality of decision-making and action taking.

Interests and Experiences in Organizational Learning: Vicki's passion for organizational learning - systems thinking, in particular - stems from childhood. "I have always been amazed at how our (Western) healthcare system treats the human body as a collection of discrete parts. Imagine the power in changing our thinking and exploring the consequences of our 'solutions' over time. And what's more, applying this thinking to organizational realities." With COLR associate Bob Rubin, Vicki has created a Systems Thinking workshop designed to help individuals directly experience the consequences of their behavior as it relates to a system. She has also developed these concepts in COLR's workshop Learning for a Change and in Developing Capacity for Cross-functional Synergy, a workshop designed with her peers. In addition to training, Vicki has applied organizational learning concepts to her consultation in business process redesign, survey feedback, and process and outcome evaluation (e.g., After Action Review and Learning Histories).

Her research interest in organizational learning involves the link between team effectiveness and team learning. "More than ever before, teams are the fuel for organizational work. Understanding how to maximize team learning is critical for sustaining advantage in today's business environment."