Learning Organizations

Think of an Organization Where: You can experiment It was ok to make (and admit) a

mistake Furthering your education /

development was not just encouraged, but expected

Leadership has open door policies Leadership openly seek critiques of

the organization Enjoy going to workplace

Daniel Pink - Drive Three Principles

Autonomy: Power to choose your direction

Mastery: Support for Professional Development

Purpose: Having a sense of meaning to your job and feeling valued

Google as an Example

Employees’ ideas are considered as important as executives’ ideas

20% Project New Parent Benefits

$500 Take out benefit first 6 weeks at home 18 weeks paid leave for mothers 7 weeks paid leave for fathers

Free gourmet, healthy meals on site TGIF sessions with leaders where any question

can be asked

Other Qualities

Active efforts to identify and solve organizational problems

Failure is Rewarded / EncouragedEncourages new approachesEncourages experimentation

Lessons LearnedSharing failures / successes

Looking beyond your organization Pathways to transfer knowledge

Other Qualities Cont.

TimeExperimentEducation / Professional Development

Create a Desire for Change & Improvement

Collaborative EffortsDoes not necessarily equate to more

meetings! Make “Work” a place employees want

to come to

Are There Other Qualities

Systems Thinking Process Improvement Networks, relationships, team-centric

approaches Self-Organizing (trust in mid-level

management and employees) What Else?

Systems Thinking

interdependency and change focus on whole not individual parts long-term goals vs. short-term benefits better appreciation of systems leads to

more appropriate action

Personal Mastery organizations learn only

through individuals who learn

never reach destination; should be in continuous learning mode

Work to clarify and deepen personal vision

deeply aware of growth areas and gaps between vision and reality

Shared Vision

A genuine vision leads to people wanting to excel and learn Leaders must translate personal visions into shared visions Unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine

commitment rather than compliance Leaders learn the counter-productiveness of trying to dictate a

vision, no matter how heartfelt. (Senge 1990: 9)

Team Learning

Team learning starts with ‘dialogue’= the capacity of members of a team to suspend assumptions and enter genuine ‘thinking together’

Allows the group to discover insights not attainable individually Shows group how to recognize the patterns of interaction that

undermine learning(Senge 1990: 10)

A Learning Organization Is...

Where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire

Where new patterns of thinking are nurtured Where collective aspiration is set free Where people are continually learning to see the whole together “When you ask people about what it is like being part of a great team,

what is most striking is the meaningfulness of the experience. People talk about being part of something larger than themselves, of being connected, of being generative.”

(Senge 1990: 13)