Learning organizations

Learning organizations

• A learning organization is one whose design actively seeks to acquire

knowledge and change behavior as a result of the newly acquired knowledge.

• In learning organizations, experimenting, learning new things, and reflecting

on new knowledge are the norms.

• At the same time, there are many procedures and systems in place that
facilitate learning at all organization levels.
 Learning organizations

Advantages of learning organizations:

• Open communication and information sharing.

• Innovativeness
• Ability to adapt to rapid change.
• Strong organizational performance.
• Competitive advantage.
 Learning organizations

Disadvantages of learning organizations:

• Power difference is ignored.

• Process of implementing will be complicated and take longer.
• Fear of employee participation in organizational decisions.
• Breaking of existing organizational rules.
What is a Learning organization?

• A learning organization is one that seeks to create its own future.

• It is one that assumes learning is an ongoing and creative process for its
members and therefore, develops, adapts, and transforms itself in response to
the needs and aspirations of people, both inside and outside .

• What learning organizations do is set its employees free. Employees no longer

have to be passive players in the equation. They learn to express ideas and
challenge themselves to contribute to create a better work environment by
participating in a paradigm shift from the traditional authoritarian workplace
philosophy to one where the hierarchy is broken down and human potential is
given a boost.
What is the importance of a Learning organization?

This includes:
•Efficiency gains
•Increased productivity
•Increased profit
•Decreased employee turnover, as employee satisfaction levels rise and loyalty
and commitment is increased
•Raising the bar by creating a continuous improvement mindset, shared
ownership for projects and shared accountability for results
•Developing leaders at all levels, which helps with succession planning
•Creating a culture of inquiry, adaptive capacity, and knowledge sharing (vs.
knowledge hoarding)
•Enhanced ability for individuals and teams to embrace and adapt to change.
What are the five disciplines of a Learning organization?

• Peter Senge is a leading writer in the area of learning organizations. He

describe five disciplines that must be mastered when introducing learning into
an organization:

1. Systems Thinking –
• the ability to see the big picture, and to distinguish patterns instead of
conceptualizing change as isolated events. Systems thinking needs the other
four disciplines to enable a learning organization to be realized. There must be
a paradigm shift - from being unconnected to interconnected to the whole, and
from blaming our problems on something external to a realization that how we
operate, our actions, can create problems.
What are the five disciplines of a Learning organization?

2. Personal Mastery –
•begins "by becoming committed to lifelong learning," and is the spiritual
cornerstone of a learning organization. Personal Mastery involves being more
realistic, focusing on becoming the best person possible, and striving for a sense
of commitment and excitement in our careers to facilitate the realization of
potential.

3. Mental Models –
•must be managed because they do prevent new powerful insights and
organizational practices from becoming implemented. The process begins with
self-reflection; unearthing deeply held belief structures and generalizations, and
understanding how they dramatically influence the way we operate in our own
lives. Until there is realization and a focus on openness, real change can never
take place.
What are the five disciplines of a Learning organization?

4. Building Shared Visions –

•visions cannot be dictated because they always begin with the personal visions
of individual employees, who may not agree with the leader's vision. What is
needed is a genuine vision that elicits commitment in good times and bad, and
has the power to bind an organization together. As Peter Senge contends,
"building shared vision fosters a commitment to the long term".

5. Team Learning –
•is important because modern organizations operate on the basis of teamwork,
which means that organizations cannot learn if team members do not come
together and learn. It is a process of developing the ability to create desired
results; to have a goal in mind and work together to attain it.
What are the five disciplines of a Learning organization?

• To summarize, a learning organization does away with the mindset that it is

only senior management who can and do all the thinking for an entire
corporation. Learning organizations challenge all employees to tap into their
inner resources and potential, in hopes that they can build their own
community based on principles of liberty, humanity, and a collective will to
learn.
What are tips to create a Learning organization?

• A learning organization breaks-down traditional silos, and enables all areas to

work together towards a common vision.
• Actions you can take to create a learning culture include:

• 1. Start by evaluating where you are at your organization by conducting a self-

audit or assessment of your organization – this will help you pinpoint what
kind of learning culture you currently have, identify the gaps, and ascertain
your organization’s readiness for change. As an organization, you should ask
yourselves, where do we want to be and how will we get there?

• 2. Lead by example, and start at the top with senior leadership – make learning
and development essential to your organization’s success by making it part of
your strategy and culture and make it highly visible and transparent
What are tips to create a Learning organization?

• 3. Develop a shared strategy for your learning culture where there is shared
accountability across the organization

• 4. Make learning a habitual (not optional) behaviour with all employees at all
levels

• 5. Ensure there is consistency and alignment of values and behavior around

learning

• 6. Encourage the sharing of learning, skills and knowledge, and encourage

coaching and mentoring across the organization

• 7. Give employees the time they need for both formal and informal learning
What are tips to create a Learning organization?

• 8. Develop and deploy key learning events that are directly linked to the
strategic goals of the organization

• 9. Allow for recognition of individual and team learning and remember to

celebrate successes

• 10. Learn from your mistakes. Instead of playing the blame game, look at what
happened, why it happened, and how it could be done better and/or differently
in the future, and share that learning

• 11. Debrief projects, identify key learnings and share them across the team
What are tips to create a Learning organization?

• Learning organization is an ongoing, dynamic process, and should become

part of the organization’s DNA. A learning culture supports a community of
learners, as a total organization, where everyone teaches, everyone learns,
everyone shares knowledge.

• Individual and collective learning is encouraged and rewarded.

• And those companies that embrace these values will be able to gain and
sustain competitive advantage over competitors who do not.