The history of solAustralia somewhat reflects the history of the founding sol.  About 10 years ago, a group of interested and passionate individuals around organization learning wanted to create a network that would provide all people (practitioners, researchers and academics) with the opportunity to share their knowledge and understanding.  One of the most famous management thinkers of the 20th century, Peter Senge, led much of this charge from the United States to resounding international success.  In Australia, this group were responsible for the first trip to Australia by Senge in 1998. And this event was responsible for setting up solAustralia.

Over the years, solAustralia has been a major activist in the global sol network.  We were integral in setting up the inaugural global sol event in Espoo, Finland, and then the second one in Oman.

We introduced the sol global and the Australian organization learning community to David Snowden’s ideas on complexity (they may not thank us for that!) We then experimented with facilitation tools and processes to support organization learning in complexity (for which David may not thank us, either!)  We explored and experimented with many different approaches to the intractable issues in organization learning – how do you overcome individual resistance to learning in an organization setting? How do you take much of the complexity tools and processes and practically embed them in the everyday process work of an organization – such as project management, talent and leadership development?

The story of founding sol and its changes over the past 10 or so years is also illuminating. For more information about Sol's global origins, please go to http://www.solonline.org/.