To some, the very term "organizational learning" is an oxymoron.

Skeptics use the term "organization" to mean bureaucracy, a state of "being" that relates more to "occupying space" rather than functionality. Likewise, others believe "learning" is something that only occurs in classrooms, preferably under the age of 22. Therefore, a combination of the two words—"organization" and "learning"—seems to be little more than an exercise in consultant job justification. (Now that just might be an oxymoron.)

To others, "learning organization" is a commitment to helping individuals and teams grow collectively and systemically so that they become smarter, wiser, and more competitive-individually and collectively. No organization can become a learning organization without the commitment and support of senior management. Leadership is essential to instilling a shared vision that will enable individuals and teams develop their potential and share their learnings throughout the entire organization.

Put another way, if one area of the company discovers a better way of doing things, or happens upon an interesting piece of research that works, it would be helpful to the entire organization if everyone in the company could share in the new ideas. In part, this is what it means to be a "learning organization"—sharing ideas, concepts, successes with others in the organization. The other part involves people coming together for common purpose and learning to solve their problems in a logical, systemic way.

Leaders of today's organizations would be wise to pay attention to how organization learning is transforming many companies and making them more competitive and more prepared for future challenges. Organizations that have implemented organizational learning are as diverse as AT&T and Ford Motor Company as well as Hewlett-Packard and the U.S. Army. I would argue also that many entrepreneurial ventures notably in Silicon Valley implement the principles of organizational learning almost intuitively, almost as a means of survival.

Peter Senge, the author-consultant most credited for creating the organizational learning "industry," wrote in The Fifth Discipline: "Through learning we reperceive the world and our relationship to it... This then is the basic meaning of a 'learning organization'-an organization that is continuously expanding its capacity to create its future." (1)

Senge's gift (if you can call it that and I do) was in taking five disparate approaches to learning and molding them into five disciplines that work together holistically to generate learning within organizations that is healthy, sustainable, and nourishing.

 

Systems thinking is an approach that emphasizes the individual relationship to the group and to the organization as means of creating feedback to address organizational issues. The "double loop" learning process is fundamental because it's a process that enables us to map root causes and then find ways to treat them. Most importantly, causal looping, as part of systems thinking, enables progress because it incorporates what we have learned along the way.

Personal mastery is an approach that forces the individual to come to terms with who he is and what he wants from life. It, too, is a discipline that incorporates conflict, in the form of creative tension, as a means of self-learning.

Mental models exist within us all. These are the "images, assumptions, and stories we carry within us." (2) It is our perception of the world as well as others perception of the same. Since mental models affect the cognitive and affective processes, they have an effect on how we learning. An organization then is not only a collection of individual mental models, but also is a meta-mental model that transcends individual thinking. Another word for it might be culture, the way an organization behaves.

Shared vision is the collaborative shaping of an idea for the future that includes the participation of individual. If a vision is to guide an organization, it must be shared; members have to make it their own.

Team learning is the approach members of a team use to come together and align themselves with the goals of the organization. As with other group activities, it's a "team skill" that can be nurtured through honest and open dialogue.

I think we can boil the five disciplines down to three areas of thought: personal development, team growth, and systemic learning.

Organizational learning must occur on the personal level first and foremost. The individual must commit to a vision as well as to a means to make it happen. The team (or the organization as a whole) has to work together to fulfill their goals, otherwise they will not occur. And both individuals and teams must be rational and logical in the way they apply the learnings of the past and present to generate results for the future.

My three do not negate the five disciplines by any means. I firmly believe that organizational learning (at least as we know it today) must depend upon systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning. Whether you use those terms or not, the principles must apply.

If you've read this far you might be thinking, "What's all this got to do with me? I have a business to run. I can't worried about this stuff?"

Think again! Organizational learning is fundamental to an organization’s ability to profit and grow. Why? Profitability depends upon a company's ability to produce goods and service with a sufficient margin to ensure stable operation, a healthy, safe environment for employees, and an ability to put away some for the development of future goods or services. Organizational learning will enable people within the company, as individuals and as teams, to observe their roles, note their contributions, learn from their mistakes, and forge new ideas and new products for future. This in turn leads to growth, the ability to increase in size, scope, and return.

Failure to tap into individual, collective, and systemic thoughts will doom a company to loop endlessly in circles, chasing its tail

Leaders, by contrast, should understand that organizational learning does not by itself guarantee profit and growth. But organizational learning does provide the disciplines a leader can use to find out what's right, what's wrong, and build on the rights to create a strong, competitive enterprise. Leadership based upon continuous learning is leadership positioned for growth and opportunity.

" John Baldoni 1998

 

References:

(1) Senge, P.M. (1990). The fifth discipline: he art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday

(2) Lapides, J.  (1997) "The Five Disciplines for Building Highly Performing Learning Organizations. Schoolof Engineering. University of Michigan-Dearborn (Course syllabus ISME-588)