Learning

Organization

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Contents
1. Definition of a Learning Organization
2. Why to Learning Organizations develop?
3. Benefits of being a Learning Organization
4. Characteristics of a Learning Organization

4.1 Systems Thinking

4.2 Personal Mastery
 4.3 Mental Model

4.4 Shared Vision

4.5 Team Learning
5.Problems/ issues that may be encountered in a
Learning Organization

5.1 Organizational barriers to learning
 5.2 Individual barriers to learning
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Text Book:
 The learning organization by Bob Garratt

Reference Books:
 The fifth discipline learning organization
by Senge, Peter. M
 Sculpting the learning organization by
Watkins, Karen E.

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 Definition
 A learning organization is the term given to
a company that facilitates the learning of its
members and continuously transforms itself.


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
“An organization that facilitates the
learning of all its members and continuously
transforms itself.” Pedleret al later
redefined this concept to “An organization
that facilitates the learning of all its
members and consciously transforms itself
and its context”.

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
“Organizations where people continually
expand their capacity to create the results
they truly desire, where new and expansive
patterns of thinking are nurtured, where
collective aspiration is set free, and where
people are continually learning to learn
together.”

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1. Challenges Facing
Modern
Business Organization
vGlobalization
vTotal Quality Management
vInformation Technology
vDiversity
vEthics


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Images and Perceptions of
Organizations
 Gareth Morgan
a)Organizations are machines
b)Organizations are biological organisms
c)Organizations are human brains
i. Organizations are stocks of knowledge
ii.Organizations can learn
iii.Organizations are networks
d)Organizations are cultures or subcultures
e)

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e)Organizations are political systems
i. Organizations are arenas where mangers
compete with each other for status
ii.Organizations are arenas where outsiders
compete for power over the organization’s
activities
iii.In the Marxist analysis, an organization is but
one of the battle grounds where the class
struggle is conducted
f)Organizations are psychic prisons
 Living in an organization can create a sense of
psychological dependency on it.
g)Organizations are systems of change and
transformation
h)Organizations are instruments of domination

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2. Change is Inevitable
C h a n g e is th e la w o f n a tu re .
 What is Change?
Definitions:
Making things different
To convert to something else
Planned Change
Activities that are intentional and goal
oriented.


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Types of Change
External Change
Developments in technology
Changes in laws
Changes in weather etc.

Internal Change
Change in strategy
Change in structure
Change in system

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Drivers of Strategic
Change
 R e g u la to ry ch a n g e s
 R o u tin e e co n o m ic d e ve lo p m e n t
 In cre a sin g so cia ld e ve lo p m e n t
 Te ch n o lo g ica ld e ve lo p m e n t

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3. Environmental Model

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4. Synergy & Teaming
concept
Kanter Innovation Model
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
 “Entrepreneurial innovation based
on synergy, strategic alliances and
new-streams.”


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 Why do Learning Organization

develop?
 When problems arise in the company, the
solutions that are proposed often turn out to be
only short term (single loop learning) and re-
emerge in the future.
 1. Change Management
 2. Environmental Model
 3. Stress Management
 4. Trust Control Dilemma
 5. Psychological Contract
 6. Whistle Blowing
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 Benefits of being a Learning
Organization
There are many benefits to improving learning capacity
and
knowledge sharing within an organization. The main

benefits
are;

Maintaining levels of innovation and remaining

competitive
Being better placed to respond to external pressures
Having the knowledge to better link resources to
customer needs
Improving quality of outputs at all levels
Improving corporate image by becoming more people
orientated 16
Characteristics of Learning
Organization
A Learning Organization exhibits five
main characteristics;
1.Systems Thinking
2.Personal Mastery
3.Mental Models
4.Shared Vision
5.Team Learning

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1. System Thinking
System of a rain storm

Business is also a system

System thinking is a conceptual framework, a

body of knowledge and tools that has been
developed over the past 50 years, to make
the full patterns clearer and to help us see
how to change them effectively.

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 System Thinking
 System thinking, a conceptual framework that
allows
 people to study businesses as bounded
objects. Learning Organizations employ this
method of thinking by developing information
systems to measure the performance of the
organization as a whole and of its various
components. It is the process of predicting, on
basis of anything at all, how something influences
another thing.


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 Systems thinking is a framework that is
based on the belief that the component parts
of a system can best be understood in the
context of relationships with each other and
with other systems, rather than in isolation.
(Silo Effect)
 “If you are not contributing towards
improvement & development of organization,
you are the part of creating problems.”

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  TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)
 &

 TOTAL ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE (TOE)

Marketing
Design
Total Purchasing
Quality
Production
Managem
ent Warehousing
System
Distribution / Service

Learning & Knowledge Mngt.

Delighted Customer
System Thinking
A system is the functions or activities within
an organization that work together for the
aim of the organization.
Subsystems of an organization are linked
together as internal customers and
suppliers.
A systems perspective acknowledges the
importance of the interactions of
subsystems, not the actions of them
individually.


Without systems thinking the seed of

vision false on harsh soil.
 Systems Thinking
Input Output
Process
•People •Goods

•Technology •Services

•Capital
•Equipment
•Materials
•Information
FEEDBACK
Comment Card
Customer Questionnaire
Focus Groups
Toll Free Telephone No.
Customer Visits
Report Card
Internet & Computer
Employee Feedback
Customer complaints
CORPORATE
COMMUNICATION CIRCLE
COMMUNICATION GAP: Product
Design
As the customer As
wanted it . Marketing
interpreted
it .
© 1984-1994 T/Maker Co. © 1984-1994 T/Maker Co.

As Operations As
made it . Engineering
designed it .

© 1984-1994 T/Maker Co. © 1984-1994 T/Maker Co.

Design Team
CUSTOMERS’ NEEDS
EXPECTED NEEDS
Are typically what one gets by just asking
customers what they want.
STATED NEEDS
Are the obvious / compulsory requirements. For
example, if meal is served hot, customers
barely notice it. If it's cold or too hot,
dissatisfaction occurs. Expected requirements
must be fulfilled.
LATENT NEEDS
Beyond the customer's expectations.
If provided , customer would be excited
If not ,they would hardly complain
CONTINUOUS
PROCESS
IMPROVEMENT
 T h e p ro ce ss a p p ro a ch
Suppli
er

Organiz Custom
Input Mk ation Sal er
t e
Pro Pro
c Sto d
re
2 . Pe rso n a lM a ste ry
M a ste ry m ig h t su g g e st g a in in g d o m in a n ce o ve r
p e o p le a re th in g s. B u t m a ste r ca n a lso m e a n a
sp e cia l le ve l o f p ro ficie n cy. A master craftsman
d o e s n o t d o m in a te p o tte ry o r w e a vin g .
Pe rso n a l m a ste ry is th e d iscip lin e o f co n tin u a lly
cla rifyin g a n d d e e p e n in g o u r p e rso n a l visio n , o f
fo cu sin g o u r e n e rg ie s, o f d e ve lo p in g p a tie n ce
a n d o f se e in g re a lity o b je ctive ly

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Personal Mastery
 Personal mastery is the commitment by an
individual to the process of learning. There is a
competitive advantage for an
organization whose workforce can learn
quicker than the workforce of other
organizations. Individual learning is acquired
through staff training and development.


 psychological contract
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5.Douglas Mc Gregor
Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X


 Coercive contract


 Inflicting Punishments

5.Douglas McGregor's
Theory

X
Theory Y
and Theory Y
 Co-operative Contract

 Calculable contract
 As people have natural tendency for
entertainment,sleep,hunger, they have also tendency to
work. If we provide incentives and favorable environment,
they may be motivated.
Carrot and stick style
Scenario
A young girl has fallen down from a mango tree and


has bruised her knees. Her father reaches the

place where she fell down and says:


(a)“Serves you right! That will teach you not to climb

the
 tree again.”
 OR
(b) “Are you sure you are all right? Please don’t
move.
 I’ll carry you to the house.”


How will the young girl interpret each of these



statements? Write her feelings in three sentences

separately each for (a) and (b).
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Answers
(a)The young girl is badly hurt. She thinks
that her father does not love her and
that he is a hard hearted person. She
will also get rebellious and there is little
room for improvement in this case.
(b)
(c)In this case, she feels herself to be loved
and protected. She thinks highly of her
father and respects him from the core of
her heart. She would promise not to
repeat such action in future. 36
Douglas McGregor's
Theories
Theory X


 Spare the rod and spoil the

child


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Douglas McGregor's
Theories
Theory Y


 Spare the rod and save the

child

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Douglas McGregor's
Theories
Contingent Plan


 Carrot and Stick Style

Video Hooks

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3. Mental Models
Images that influence how we understand the
world and how we take action. For example:
A coworker dresses elegantly (a country club
person)
Someone who dresses shabbily (does not
care about others opinions
Royal Dutch / Shell, one of the first large
organizations to understand the advantages
of excellerating organizational learning (In the
early 1970s Shell was the weakest of the big
seven oil companies; by the late 1980s it was
the strongest.) 40
“learning ful” conversations that balance
inquiry and advocacy, where people
expose their own thinking effectively and
believe that open thinking influences
others.

Mental models are the terms given to
ingrained assumptions held by individuals
and organizations. If there are unwanted
values held by the organization, these
need to be discarded in a process called
‘unlearning’. Wand and Ahmed refer to
this as ‘triple loop learning.’
 41
4. Shared Vision
Some measure of greatness in the absence of
goals, values and missions that become
deeply shared throughout the organization.
IBM had Service

Polaroid had instant photography

Ford had public transportation for the masses.

Apple had computing power for the masses.



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People excel and learn, not because they are
told to, but because they want to

Company`s shared vision has revolved around
the charisma of a leader or around a crisis
that galvanizes everyone temporarily

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Shared Vision
 The development of a shared vision is
important in incentivizing the workforce to
learn as it creates a common identity that can
provide focus and energy for learning.
 Learning Organizations tend to have flat,
decentralized organizational structures.
vMission
vVision
vCase Scenario
vMatrix
vHybrid
vOrganic Structure

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5. Team Learning
If a learning organization were an engineering
innovation, such as the airplane or personal
computer, the components would be called
technologies. For an innovation in human
behavior the components need to be seen as
disciplines. By discipline does not mean an
enforced order or means of punishment, but a
body of theory and technique that must be
studied and mastered to be put into practice.
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 A discipline is a developmental path for
acquiring
 certain skills or competencies. As with any
discipline,
 from playing the piano to electrical engineering,
some
 people have an innate gift but anyone can
develop
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Team Learning
 Team Learning is the accumulation of
individual learning. Learning Organizations
have structures that facilitate team learning
with features such as boundary crossing and
openness.


 These also have excellent knowledge

management structures, which allow creation,
acquisition, dissemination and implementation
of this knowledge throughout the organization.


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Proficiency can be developed through practice
and training


Never Say: We are a Learning Organization

rather you Should Say We claim a team
having enlightened people

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The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People
What is habit?
 The intersection of knowledge, skill and desire.

Knowledge?
 What to do and the why

Skill?
 How to do

Desire?
 The motivation or want to do
 The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People
(Contd.)
 Be Proactive.
 Proactive people let carefully thought about ,
selected and internalized values-----how to
respond.
 Reactive people------conditions, circumstances or
environment tell how to respond.
 It is not what happens to us but our response that
differentiates the two behaviors.
Reactive Proactive
There’s nothing I can do. Let’s look at our alternatives.

I Can’t I Choose

Things are getting worse. What initiative can we use?

The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People
(Contd.)
 Begins with the end in Mind.
 All things are created twice.
 Develop a personal philosophy.
P u t F irst T h in g s F irst. Time Management Matrix
–S e lf m a n a g e mUrgent
e nI t Not Urgent
II
Crises, fire-fighting Prevention,
Important

Pressing problems Relationship building

Deadline driven projects Recognizing new opportunities
Planning, recreation

III IV
Interruptions, pressing matters Trivia, busy work
Some mail, calls, reports Time wasters
Not Important

Some meetings, proximate Pleasant activities

Popular activities
The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People
(Contd.)
 Think Win-Win.
 Win –Win is a frame of mind and heart that
constantly seeks mutual benefits in all human
interactions.


 Four Steps in Win-Win process

 See the problem from the others view point
 Identify the key issues and concerns
 Determine acceptable results
 Seek possible options to achieve those results.
The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People
(Contd.)
 Seek First to Understand, Then to Be
Understood.
 Empathic listening is key to effective
communication
 Covey’s three Greek words:
 Ethos-------Your personal credibility or character
 Pathos-------The empathy you have for other
 person’s communication
 Logos--------Logic or reasoning part of your
 presentation
The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People
(Contd.)
Synergy.
Sharpen the Saw (Renewal)

 Four dimensions nature.

 Physical
 Spiritual
 Mental
 Social/emotional

LQ or Leadership
Quotient


Physical Intelligence (Body)

 Body is the temple of spirit
Mental Intelligence (Mind)
Emotional Intelligence (Heart)
Spiritual Intelligence (Spirit)
LQ = 6 I


1. Inspiration
2. Integrity
3. Initiative
4. Innovation
5. Impact
6. Influence
 Get the Most Out of Your Organization and
Your Efforts with Leadership Effectiveness
Quotient

IQ + EQ = LEQ
Business Emotional Leadership
Intelligence Intelligence Effectiveness

Lead Business Facts + Intuition = Business

Acumen

Lead People Skills + Caring = Connect with

Perceptiveness People

Lead Process Linear + Non-linear = Flexibility

DecisionMaking Reasoning + Core Values = Wisdom

Organizational Development

Management Development

Career Development

Individual Development

Development
Training
Education

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