Call them "evolutionaries."

Or maybe "missionaries."

Whatever they're called, the 22 District team members spearheading the South Pacific Division's Leadership Development Program (LDP) intend to create change and make converts. In the abstract jargon of programmatic explanation, the LDP effort "fills the gap to provide the essential leadership development training that is regionally oriented and necessary for the accomplishment of our future missions."

In plain English, Lynnette Coachman of the Santa Ana Branch puts it this way: "The workforce is changing. If we're not cultivating emerging leaders, we lose out as an organization. LDP is a valuable tool to help implement a learning organization." Adds Lisa Lugar of the Office of Counsel: "If we don't change, organizationally we're stuck with becoming dinosaurs."

Off and on all this year, the 22 team members have quietly begun to spread the LDP gospel throughout the Division. They've formed four main teams to deliver the message-Interaction, PM & Creative, Formulation and Research and Learning Doctrine teams, with six to eight people on each.

The LDP is aimed at "high potential" GS/WG-09s through 13s and is open to all those with career status in all functional areas and career programs. A supervisor's statement is required, and graduates must successfully complete all the mandatory program elements within one year. District team members can apply from July 1 through August 1 with Lugar in the Office of Counsel.

There's no question that LDP has become a priority for the Corps. LTG Bob Flowers, known as a hard-charging, kick-ass leader when he was a colonel overseeing several combat engineering battalions in the Gulf War, stressed that the Corps is "a learning organization" during Senate testimony in early June. Citing Gen. Flowers's unmitigated support for the idea and the program, Tawny Tran, a project manager in the District's environmental restoration program, says it shows "how strongly he feel about this concept and making it a reality."

Maybe you've already been approached by the missionaries. One example is a Learning Organization questionnaire handed out to get a more accurate picture of how LDP can benefit you and your workplace colleagues. The questions: What is a significant problem in your workplace? What is the root cause of this problem? What examples have worked or what do you feel should be done? Can this solution be applied to other areas? How would you go about sharing this information with other teams, districts, divisions? "We're identifying what a learning organization looks like," explains Kelli Johnson from the Budget Office. "In order for people to change, we have to let them see why it's important to change."

Another strategy is a series of brown bag lunches to disseminate information to interested applicants. Held in an informal atmosphere, the meetings feature a presentation from current and former participants, followed by a Q&A. The Regulatory Branch's Susan Desaddi, one of the LDP's local organizers, thinks that the lunches were effective last year when they began. "They were informative, inviting and casual," she says, suggesting that LDP members take a day or two to visit field offices "to encourage more applications and participation" from them.

LDP goals are simple but ambitious:

--develop leadership skills;

--build teamwork;

--build and develop relationships;

--understand the environment in which the Corps operates;

--understand the value of diversity;

--develop a corporate perspective.

Other ways of getting the word out include a newsletter, use of the Intranet Web page, bulletin board announcements and e-mails to District recipients. "Face-to-face is best," says Johnson, "but if you can't do face-to-face, technology is better than no meeting at all."

Once someone signs up, he or she embarks on a demanding but rewarding regimen. One module, for example, requires participants to attend a week-long leadership course led by Ken Burns of the Center for Army Leadership; read an extensive list of books and articles on leadership; attend meetings with various Corps leaders, military and civilian customers and private-sector managers; pick a mentor to meet with regularly; and take training in various personal development courses. Three other modules offer similar but more advanced curriculums.

After finishing, each team member will receive a certificate, evaluate the program and plan outreach efforts for next year's push.

As in any organization, resistance to change is part of the culture. Add the diverse backgrounds and varying goals of District team members, widely differing perspectives and a growing "separation of knowledge," and the task confronting the evolutionaries becomes formidably clear.

But the LDP-ers remain undaunted by the challenge. "Our task is not to let an 'Us vs. Them' mentality prevail," says Johnson. "We have to spread and share this knowledge with them." Adds Coachman, who once helped supply Marines operating in Somalia: "As each new group comes up, we are accountable to implement this new knowledge-to pass it on, to empower people."

In many ways, the LDP system closely resembles the classic Japanese management consensus formation called nemawashi. Literally, it means "root-binding" and refers to the bottom-up consultation, collaboration and execution of nearly all major decisions done within Japanese organizations. (There's even an LDP in Japan, but it refers to the Liberal Democratic Party, a political faction.)

But the American-style LDP has its main roots in the learning organization vision of Peter Senge, an MIT management guru who wrote a seminal book, The Fifth Discipline, on the subject in 1990. Other influences on the movement range from Edward Deming, the godfather of quality control, to Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and author of dozens of books on the theme of how to live and thrive in the moment. "Contemplate to see that awakened people, while now being enslaved by the work of serving living beings, never abandon their work of serving living beings," he wrote in The Miracle of Mindfulness.

Tran, herself of Vietnamese origin, recognizes the ethereal quality of LDP and Learning Organization on paper. But in practice, she says, applying the ideas and values of the systems to the daily work of the Corps is not only valuable but vital.. "When we first started, we had no clue what a Learning Organization was," she says. "Now it's embedded in our daily professional lives. If we don't adapt organizationally, customers will start to go elsewhere."