Organizational Learning

• The Learning Organization is an organization that has woven a continuous and enhanced capacity to learn, adapt and change its processes and culture. Its values, policies, practices, systems and structures support and accelerate learning for all who work in it.

• Generative and adaptive learning are the norm• A learning organization is one in which people at all

levels, individually and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about.

• An organisation which facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself as a whole

Pedler, M., Burgoyne. & Boydell, T., (1991), The Learning Company, McGraw Hill

• Organisations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, when new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free and where people are continually learning how to learn together

• Senge, P., The Fifth Discipline, Centuary

Learning Organisation

Relevance of OL

1) It provides competitive advantage2) It provides a buffer between the organization and its environment to stop a reactive response to every event.3) Brings in flexibility so that an organization has the ability to respond to the environment, and predict emergent opportunities.4) Human beings are designed for learning

• Learning is essential to provide rapid continuous change

• The competitive advantage of learning quicker than competitors

• Increasing the rate of change• Increase in creativity• Organisations success depends on engagement

and learning at all levels of the organisation

Why the Learning Organisation?

5

Organizational Learning

• Learning is a feedback process• Organizational learning embraces both

adaptive and generative learning

6

Organizational Learning

• Single-Loop Learning– Look for solutions within organization’s policies,

plans, values, and rules– Error-and-correction process – Promotes adaptive learning

7

Organizational Learning

• Double-Loop Learning– Closes gap between desired and actual states of

affairs by questioning– Modifies organization’s policies, plans, values, and

rules to guide action – Promotes generative learning

8

Organizational Learning

Peter Senge’s 5 Disciplines

• Personal Mastery• Mental Models• Shared Vision • Team Learning• Systems Thinking

Personal Mastery

• Based on personal vision.• Facing current reality.• Holding creative tension--the gap between

reality and the vision we hold is creative tension.

• Commitment to the truth.• Using subconscious, or, “you don’t really need

to figure it all out.

Personal Mastery

• Is the emotional intelligence-capacity to use our intelligence (smarts) to the fullest extent.

• Organizations learn only through individuals who learn.

Personal Mastery Capacity

Our capacity is limited by 5 Demons:• Fear of not being good enough [you have

untapped capacities within yourself]• Fear of losing control [letting go makes new

things happen]• its a cruel world out there--life is always a

struggle [there is generosity all around, all you have to do is ask]

Personal Mastery

• I am in this all alone, I can’t count on anyone but myself [there is help everywhere]

• Fear of losses to great to bear, fear of our own mortality [leaving something behind creates space for something new]

Source: Personal communication Judy Brown, Ph.D.

Mental Models

• Are the images, assumptions, and stories which we carry in our minds of ourselves, other people, institutions, and every aspect of the world.

• Are like a pane of glass framing and subtly distorting our vision.

• They determine what we see.

Mental Models

• They are our cognitive maps of the world people hold in their long-term memory and short-term perceptions which people build up as part of their everyday reasoning processes.

• According to some cognitive theorists, changes in short-term every day mental models, accumulating over time, will gradually be reflected in changes in long-term deep-seated beliefs.

Mental Models

• Are powerful in affecting what we do because they affect what we see.

• The tools needed to practice this discipline are Reflection and Inquiry.

Skills for working & practicing the discipline on Mental Models

• Reflection--slowing down our thinking processes to become aware of how we form our mental models.

• Inquiry--holding conversations where we openly share views and develop knowledge about each other’s assumptions.

Ladder of Inference:

A tool for examining your “mental models”

All that is knowable

Observable data/experiences

I select

Data(from what I observe)

I add

Meaning(cultural & personal)

I make

Assumptions(based on meaning)

I draw

Conclusions(based on assumptions)

I adopt

Beliefs(about the world)

I take

Actions(based on my beliefs)

ADVO

CACY

INQUIRY

Our beliefsaffect what

data we select thenext time

Climbing the Ladder“I’d better

consider bringing someone else in on this project.”

“Paul arrives afterthe meeting

started.”

“Paul is late for my meeting.”

“He’s not very interested in

helping me with this project.”

“He’s not going to be there when

crunch time hits.”

Shared Vision

• Shared visions emerge from personal visions.• Personal mastery is the bedrock for

developing shared vision. Commitment to the truth and creative tension can generate levels of energy that go beyond individual abilities.

Shared Vision

• Leaders intent on building shared visions must be willing to continually share their personal visions. They must also be prepared to ask, “Will you follow me?”

• Vision creates a sense of commonality that binds people together for a greater good.

• A shared vision must be co-created.

Team LearningTeam Learning is the process of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results the members truly desire.

Tools of Team Learning are Dialogue and Conversation

• A flow of thoughts and meaning• Open and honest talk• Awareness of one’s assumptions, discovery of the assumptions of

others.

Systems Thinking

• An appreciation of how our actions shape our reality.

• An appreciation that ones actions impinge all the members of the work unit.

• Focus on interrelationships and not things• Think in circles, not in lines.• Moving beyond blame.

Systems Thinking (Cont.)

• Systems Thinking shows that there is nothing outside--that you and the cause of the problems are part of a single system.

• The language of systems thinking is “links” and “loops.”

Systems Thinking (Cont...)

• Seeing interrelationships rather than linear cause-effect chains.

• Seeing circles of causality.• Seeing processes of change rather than

snapshots.• The practice of systems thinking starts with

understanding the concept called “feedback.”

Garvin’s Prescriptive Model• Systematic Problem Solving- Use of data and stastical

tools.• Experimentation- Systematic searching for and testing of

new knowledge• Learning from Past Experience• Learning from others- Benchmarking• Transferring knowledge• Measuring learning- audits

Each is accompanied by a distinctive mindset, tool kit and pattern of behavior.

Pedler and Pearn’s E-flow Model

• Acc. To Pearn definition of OL cannot exist as it is a process not a state and that the possession of a number of characteristics does not necessarily entitle an organization to be called the learning organization. They suggest that a learning company is a vision of what might be possible, and have developed a list of 11 features of that vision.

11 Features• The learning approach to strategy• Participative policy making• Informating • Formative accounting and control • Internal exchange• Reward Flexibility• Enabling structures • Boundary workers as environmental scanners• Intercompany learning• A learning climate• Self-development opportunities for all

Summary