Organizational Learning

The essence of organizational learning is the organizations ability to use the

amazing mental capacity of its members to create the kind of processes that
will improve its own.

The fields of organizational learning and knowledge management have

developed quickly over the last decade.

Senge (1990) defines the Learning Organization as the organization "in

which you cannot not learn because learning is so insinuated into the fabric
of life." Also, he defines Learning Organization as "a group of people
continually enhancing their capacity to create what they want to create.

Team learning
Is the process of working collectively to achieve common objectives in a
group? In the Learning Organization context, team members tend to share
knowledge and complement each other skills. Moreover, if there is no
commitment from team members then effort of team working and learning
from team work may fail. This is why teams should be given freewill to act
especially in the Learning Organization context.

The Disciplines of Team Learning

 Dialogue and Discussion

 Conflicts and Defensive Routines
 Practice
The concepts of Team Learning can be broken down into four key
components:

1. Questioning
2. Valuing Diversity
3. Communicating
4. Learning Review

Questioning

When faced with a problem, a new project or an opportunity, it is a good

idea to focus on the nine key success factors which make the difference
between a high-performing team and a low-performing team

There are nine essential team activities as:

 Advising - Gathering and reporting information

 Innovating - Creating and experimenting with ideas
 Promoting - Exploring and presenting opportunities
 Developing - Assessing and testing the applicability of new
approaches
 Organizing - Establishing and implementing ways of making things
work
 Producing - Concluding and delivering outputs
 Inspecting - Controlling and auditing the working of systems
 Maintaining - Upholding and safeguarding standards and processes
 Linking - Coordinating and integrating the work of others

Valuing Diversity

Diversity of thinking is one of the hallmarks of learning teams. Problems

need to be viewed from different angles if the best solutions are to be
generated. If everyone looks at problems in the same way then group think
can occur. If diversity is allowed and encouraged, then better solutions will
result.
Communicating

Communication is the essential process that links a team together

Learning Review

Learning is an iterative process that takes place through feedback. We are all
used to performance reviews and individual feedback, but rarely do we
experience team feedback

At the end of each team meeting (or at the start of the next), it is a good idea
to review how the meeting went. Was the questioning process adequate? Did
we value diversity? How well did we communicate?

Learning behavior
We must know that team psychological safety is associated with learning
behavior as predicted learning behavior mediates between team
psychological safety and team performance.

Little research has been done to understand the factors that influence
learning behavior in ongoing teams in real organizations and they discovered
that studies of work team in a variety of organizational settings have shown
that team effectiveness is enabled by structural features such as a well-
designed team task.
Many researchers have concluded that structure and design including
equipment, material, physical environment and pay system are the most
important variables for improving work team performance.

We can say that the challenge facing managers today is to make the effort
needed to learn some of the new skill technique, and to put in processes that
engage their workforce in programs of continuous capability development.
Learning behavior should be energizing and fun, including yourself to meet
the challenges ahead.

Mental models
 Mental models are one way of looking at the world .it’s a frame of
cognitive process of our mind.
 It determines how we think and act.
 Steps of mental models
4-decision

3-conculsion

2-applying your own theories

1- observation

 Mental models affect what we see in situation &create reinforce

pattern of behavior.
 There are three basic forms are used
polygon : whose vertices sharing the edges represent related items
casual loop diagrams : display tendency &direction of information
connection and resulting causality 1- single loop 2- double loop
3-feedback

Double-loop learning
Feedback process Single-loop learning
 Argyris said that "everyone have a theory of actions which are set
of rules used to understand the behavior of the others."

Skills of reflection Skills of inquiry

• slow down your thinking to • Face to face interaction .

be aware of how we form
mental models.
• Recognize the gap between
what we say & what we
believe.
• Ex : left hand technique.
Like a dialogue but you have
one part and you think
about the other part .
• Ex. Mutual learning
1-sharing information
2-asking for confirming or
disconfirming your assumption
3-discuss your thinking rather
than your result
4- balancing your advocacy
with inquiry.
• These differences create
creativity &opportunity of
learning.
.

 These skills can improve employee mental models and give them
power to change their behavior and to lead their organization to
success
 How to transform the mental models from barriers to strength point?
1-devolope &shaping mental models mean developing of individual
&organization behavior.
2-empolyee must feel comfortable to examine their models and to
share in taking decision.
3-helping individual to develop their skills of reflection &inquiry.
4-promote diversity rather than conformity.
5-accept the incompatibilities of the others.