Question

What are the benefits of using the learning organization approach to design? Consider the fact that organizations

must be willing to tolerate many mistakes because it is only through the effort of understanding mistakes that learning can occur. With this statement in mind, what are some of the potential problems with the use of the learning organization approach? Have you ever had an idea at your present or past workplace that was or was not implemented? How did it work out? Did that organization represent a learning organization?

Answer 1

A learning culture is one with organizational values, systems and practices that support and encourage both individuals, and the organization, to increase knowledge, competence and performance levels on an ongoing basis. This, in turn, promotes continuous improvement and supports the achievement of business goals, innovation and the ability to deal with change.

five interrelated disciplines of a learning culture:

Personal Mastery: personal capacity-building; encouraging personal and organizational goals to be developed and realized together.

2) Mental Models: challenging and changing our way of thinking about the world around us

3) Shared Vision: Building a shared vision and sense of collective commitment as to where we want to go as an organization and how to achieve that goal

4) Team Learning: Building a team’s capacity to learn together and develop intelligence and ability together that is greater than the sum of it individual member’s talents

5) Systems Thinking: developing the ability to see the ‘big picture’ and understanding how changes in one area of the organization affect the system as a whole – it is the overall recognition of the interdependence of, and interrelationships between, the parts of the system and how to leverage and drive change throughout the system as a whole

A true organizational learning culture enables employees to challenge the status quo, think critically, and ensures that the team doesn’t become stuck in “this is the way it has always been done here” thinking, and instead, creates the capacity and adaptability needed for change.

Benefits of a learning culture

There are many benefits to creating a strong organizational learning culture, including:

• 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.

Tips for creating a sustainable organizational learning culture

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:

• 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?
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• 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
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• Develop a shared strategy for your learning culture where there is shared accountability across the organization
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• Make learning a habitual (not optional) behaviour with all employees at all levels
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• Ensure there is consistency and alignment of values and behavior around learning
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• Encourage the sharing of learning, skills and knowledge, and encourage coaching and mentoring across the organization
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• Give employees the time they need for both formal and informal learning
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• Develop and deploy key learning events that are directly linked to the strategic goals of the organization
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• Allow for recognition of individual and team learning and remember to celebrate successes
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• 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
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• Debrief projects, identify key learnings and share them across the team

Organizational learning 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

1 – Employee Resistance to Change

Resistance to change is a common barrier to organizational learning. People who have been at their jobs for a long time and are set in their ways often don’t want to learn new processes.

But resistance to change doesn’t only occur among the most tenured of employees. No, this kind of mentality can arise among anyone who doesn’t want to step away from the comfort of familiar processes and systems.

But for an organization to advance, change must be ongoing. As an organization adapts to dynamic markets, internal processes, knowledge, and use of technology will need to keep up.

To prevent resistance to change, explain to your employees why the change is necessary and how it will benefit them.

2 – Ignoring the Elephant in the Room

If you ignore the elephant in the room, you’ll end up with a big mess.

What elephant are we talking about? The unpleasant aspects of organizational learning. These will vary depending on the change you implement, but they could be a new process, eliminating a technology platform your team is used to, or disruption to workflow.

Once you have identified barriers to organizational learning, you can find a solution. But, if left unaddressed, they will fester and get worse.

3 – Lack of Leadership Training

Leadership development is critical to organizational learning. The communication, change management, and support skills required to guide organizational learning must be learned.

Inadequate leadership training leads to poorly run teams and chaos during periods of change. On the other hand, leaders who are equipped to guide learning efforts will boost the morale and confidence of their teams.

Continuous training and development is the key to ensuring your managers can guide change and learning efforts effectively.

4 – Disregard of Team Success

Sometimes, it’s difficult to see how organizational learning programs fit in with an individual’s personal goals.

Learning often takes time and effort away from employees’ day-to-day tasks. When an organization prioritizes this investment in learning, but the employee does not, it is difficult to make that employee truly engaged.

To increase employee engagement in the learning process, illustrate how the new skills, processes or systems will enable them to work better. Show them how their individual success will lead to team success, and provide positive reinforcements for team achievements.