DELIVERING CUSTOMER VALUE

Learning Organisation

Learning Organisation
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 see the whole together. (Peter Senge, 1990)

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 "The essence of organisational learning is the organisation's ability to use the amazing mental capacity of all its members to create the kind of processes that will improve its own" Nancy Dixon (1994) A model of strategic change in which everyone is engaged in identifying and solving problems so that the organisation is continuously changing, experimenting and improving, thus increasing its capacity to grow and achieve its purpose. (Rowden, 2001)
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Requires Trust, consistency, attitude of inquiry High levels of communication Concern for interdependencies & interrelationships

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M. Pedler al: The Learning Company - 11 characteristics

Adopt a learning approach to strategy Participative policy making Informating (Information Systems) Formative accounting valuing, self-responsibility, appraisal, targeting, resourcing and review Internal exchange (client-server relationships) Reward flexibility Roles and flexible, matrix structures Boundary workers as intelligence agents Company-to-company learning Learning climate Self-development opportunities for all
http://sol.brunel.ac.uk/bola/culture/learnco.html
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Pedler stresses that

the model is a simplification, symbolic rather than concrete, not complete or rigid, not sequential So what is it then
a paradigm of discourse? A state of being?

starts with strategy, ends with creation of learning opportunities & bubbling. Flowery, metaphorical talk of ecological flows, energies, life forces & balances "vertical & horizontal loop energy flows providing linkages between individual & collective activity/change + dynamics between vision & action".
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Peter Senges Five Disciplines

Systems Thinking Team Learning

Personal Mastery Mental Models

Shared Vision

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Five Disciplines - expanded Systems thinking mind shift & understanding change processes. feedback to reinforce/counteract action. recognise recurring structures remove root causes/problems Personal Mastery personal competence and vision developing patience to look at reality objectively Mental Models changing ingrained assumptions about influencing factors. Shared Vision use instincts, intuition by sharing personal vision pictures of the future Team Learning dialogue, discussion, group relationships accelerate org. learning thru. Synergy 2+2=5
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Reality and Problems? Personal Mastery

Making It Work Managers must redefine their job provide the right conditions for employees to be proactive Generating a sense of purpose

How can this be operationalised? Evidence of it happening well?

The Tricky Part Resistance to PM due to difficulty in quantifying results Ideas behind PM have been heard before People forced to develop PM - may do more harm than good
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Reality and Problems? Mental Models

Making It Work Skills learnt must be put into regular practice continually challenged Strong role of manager to integrate mental modelling and systems-thinking skills How can this be operationalised? Evidence of it happening well? The Tricky Part

Managers not always very skilled in implementing new ideas People find it difficult to challenge assumptions they believe to be the case Some people act in routinised ways when they are at work

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Reality and Problems? Shared Vision

Making It Work the focus and energy for learning put together by many not a few better when considered intrinsically at the organisational level. How can this be operationalised? Evidence of it happening well? The Tricky Part

Compliance not commitment Extrinsic visions are usually personally held and are defensive Vision is usually top-down - do not have as good an affect as they should.

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Reality and Problems? Team Learning

Making It Work Everyone must pull in the same direction Teams must master the art of dialogue and discussion Conflict can still appear in good team learning BUT essentially a unitary frame of reference How can this be operationalised? Evidence of it happening well? The Tricky Part

practice, and consistency, no quick fixes boredom sets in open minded with ones own views and the views of others

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Reality and Problems? Systems Thinking

Making It Work Management must understand concepts to put into place look at the whole picture, not snap shots in time provide the right workplace conditions How can this be operationalised? Evidence of it happening well? The Tricky Part

People find it hard to see the whole pattern of change takes time to see newly initiated ideas work easier to learn at an early stage rather than uncouple tangled messes

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Inhibitors to Becoming a Learning Organisation

Operational / Fire-fighting Short term fixes rather than long-term solutions How to focus on embedded systems and processes Reluctance to train (or invest in training) Too many hidden personal agendas Tension between top-down order and bottom up anarchy Management exasperation? The knee-jerk reaction to Theory Y failure?

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Hot air, recursive polemic?

The LO characteristics become an energetic, normative, persuasive device for those wishing to manage change. a professional "change agents'" model? Independent of the context or analysis of change processes? prescriptions - commitments to flexible, self-managing, incremental, experimental, participative activities ? ethically correct, personal values model?

How well does down-sizing and asset stripping fit in?

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Training

Training by its nature

pre-specifies outcomes.

A planned process to modify attitude, knowledge, or skill behaviour through learning experience to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities. Its purpose, in the work situation, is to develop the abilities of the individual and to satisfy the current future Manpower Services Commission, 1981

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Questions
It is glib to talk of a learning organisation. The concept is gloss and elusive. Demonstrating it in action is more difficult . Almost anything could be presented to say that a L-organisation exists and operates yet many could also present instances to refute the proposition. Discuss.

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