Learning Organizations and You

October 2, 2012

Colleen Wheeler, Wheaton

D. Grainger Wedaman, Brandeis

Outline• The Gap Quiz Experiment• The Idea• Characteristics and Tensions• Learning Organization Academy

The GapAn Experimental quiz

QuizThink about the time in your life you learned best. What were the details of that experience? What did it feel like?

QuizA.Name the context in two words(like “chess with my uncle”).

QuizB. Pick a word to describe how it felt to learn.

QuizC.Compare your learning experience to your general experience of work. Plot it on a 1 – 10.

ResultsSafety, trust, risk tolerance, small group, feedback, reflective, intellectually challenging, motivating, sense of growth, humor, passion, insight, fun . . .

Similarity to work? Uh – oh!

The Ideaof the Learning Organization

“We must become able not only to transform our institutions, in response to changing situations and requirements; we must invent and develop institutions which are ‘learning systems’, that is to say, systems capable of bringing about their own continuing transformation.”Donald Schon, Beyond the Stable State

ideaA collective enterprise in which learning is the organizational principle.

rather than• Other organizing principles!• Alternating states of change and stability.• Being disrupted.

historyRobert Hutchins, The Learning Society, 1970Donald Schon, Beyond the Stable State, 1973Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline, 1990.

characteristicsand

tensions

problemLearning is in many ways contradictory to workplace norms.

balanceYou need consistent activities for identity and coherence. Learning disrupts consistence.

Learning Orgs balance these.

anxietyLearning new ways to work causes

a lot of anxieties.

Learning Orgs are open about this and help manage it.

competenceA primal fear in the workplace: been seen as a failure or incompetent.

Learning requires incompetence.

talkTo learn, people need

“psychologically safe” places, to be able to say

what they think, to discuss, to disagree.

Learning Orgs create these.

motivationYou learn best when “instrinsically”

motivated. The workplace uses extrinsic motivation.

Learning Organizations find ways to let people explore the things they care

about.

passionPeople learning together experience happiness – joy – passion. Reluctantly allowed by the workplace.

Learning Orgs encourage and appreciate passion.

playPlay, experimentation,

construction combine learning, discovery, and fun. They don’t

happen much.

Learning Orgs provide “Duckworth” environments.

mindfulnessPaying attention to yourself, your feelings, your triggers, your hopes, is crucial to learning. Workplaces don’t reinforce self-awareness.

Learning Orgs promote mindfulness

reflectionFeedback and reflection are necessary for learning. Most workplaces avoid these activities.

Learning Orgs promote both.

ideasContinual change requires a flow of

generative ideas. Workplaces don’t have ways to create and manage an idea flow.

Learning Orgs are gardeners of ideas.

sumNo perfect example

We all know of moments

Learning Organization is a goal

LOALearning Organization Academy

historyInfamous 2010 Focus Group

LOA Formed 2012

First cohort in session

modelSummer immersion in learning, mindfulness, joy

Year-long inquiry projects

examplesBuilding DH community of practiceImplementing “exploration time”Creating on-boarding programVisual thinking in portfolio management

examplesRevamping customer relationship managementSupporting creativity in the workplaceDeveloping “learning” consultants

Learning Organizations and YouColleen Wheeler, Wheaton

D. Grainger Wedaman, Brandeis