Learning Organization

An organization is like a living organism, it takes birth, grows, matures and it may also die. The life span of organizations vary, some organization may live for very long time, spreading across several generations of human life, and others may not sustain even few years. What makes one organization perish in the short run and another organization survive and grow for longer duration? Like living organisms, the survival of organization also depends a lot on adaptability.  The ability to change itself with the environment in which it is operating, but, before that having sensitivity and sensibility to see the change, assess the significance and criticality of the observed change, and evaluate its options and preparedness to adopt for that change. A learning organization is prepared proactively by foreseeing the imminent change or need for modification in its course, and has greater possibility to survive, thrive and grow.

Learning organizations are committed to a cycle of continuous learning and improvement. They promote a culture that enables and accelerates individual and group learning, and has a system in place to leverage on the information pool thus created and transform that into actions. Learning organizations have means, ways, and systems and will to identify better ways of learning for individuals, groups thereby facilitating better learning for the organization.

We live in the world of extraordinary interdependence, all organizations sit within larger systems – industries, communities and larger living systems. It’s impractical to think that the well-being of a company can be advanced independent of the well-being of its industry, its society, and the natural systems upon which it depends.

Peter Senge, an American systems scientist who is also a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute, popularized the term learning organization after it was first used in the 1980s by Richard Pascal.  Peter defines the learning organization as the organization “in which you cannot not learn because learning is so insinuated into the fabric of life.” According to him the learning organizations are “ …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”.

In his book, The Fifth Discipline, he has suggested 5 disciplines to facilitate an organization transforming into learning organization.

These five disciplines are

1. Systems Thinking: Comprehending the big picture of your environment vis a vis your organization the cause and effect association that the two have. Understanding the interconnections and interrelationships that shape the behavior of the systems in which we exist. Organizations are made of interrelated elements that function as a whole. Change in one element can cause change in other elements. Changes in critical part may set off a chain reaction of continuous cause-and-effect events that ripple and loop throughout the company. Depending on the effect of the change overall company performance be either greatly enhanced or diminished.

In his book, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge has narrated an instance to elaborate Systems Thinking. When one group (the NVH (noise-vibrations-harshness) engineers) had a vibration problem and applied a quick fix, like “adding reinforcements,” rather than working with the other group on a more integrated solution, the side effects, such as the added weight of the reinforcements, often affected the second group. The second development group (who were responsible for the total weight elsewhere and compensated with their own quick fix, such as specifying a higher tire pressure to meet safety requirements. But the higher tire pressure had the side effect of increased harshness, which then became a whole new problem for the NVH engineers. When both groups saw the diagram together, they recognized a pattern that had plagued them for years, a reinforcing reliance on quick fixes caused by schedule pressure and unwillingness to take the time to work out integrative solutions – and they knew how it had arisen. As they sat there, shaking their heads, they also saw what this patter meant for their future: escalating hostilities and inferior overall product designs. Finally, someone said, “Look what we’re doing to ourselves”

2. Personal Mastery: Doing your job well, with complete efficiency and effectiveness without fail. Learning to expand one’s personal capacity to create the future and results one most desires. It is the basic human need to learn, grow and achieve personal mastery that fuels and provides substance to all learning organization. An individual is the smallest unit of the organization and no organization can be a learning organization without its individual members being free to learn. There should be a system of constant teaching and encouragement to become creative architects of their own work lives. People must think of personal mastery as a process of continuous growth and development.

3. Team Learning: Collaborating and contributing to synergize individual learning and transforming that into group and subsequently organizational learning. In a matter of second a work group can become a thinking machine, producing a set of answers to so far unsolvable company problems or coming up with revolutionary new product ideas.

4. Mental Models: Critically questioning the old established processes and systems, being prepared to change, revamp or remove processes and systems keeping in view the suggestions from the acquired learning. Mental models are images, assumptions and beliefs that everyone carries around in their heads. They include strongly held beliefs about self, family members, employing organizations and the world at large, which exists in the subconscious. These mental maps help people simplify organize and make sense of their complex world. Learning organizations operate from a strong factual base. Learning organizations are willing to continuously discard or revise obsolete and sometimes treasured beliefs and embrace new and unfamiliar mental models.

5. Shared Vision:  Arriving at a collective purpose. Building a common sense of purpose and commitment by developing shared images of the future that we seek to create. In a learning organization all workers regardless of their positions are invited and provided with opportunities to create, test, communicate and promote the company’s mission. Employees are asked to play a strategic part in setting the goals and quality standards that will turn their company’s shared vision and reality. Workers are also encouraged and given assistance in setting and aligning their own personal visions and goals with those of the organization. In this way learning organizations have a definite advantage over their competitors. They are able to benefit from the collective intelligence, creative know how and commitment of all employees. Zara is a Galician fast fashion (clothing and accessories) retailer based in Arteixo, Galicia (Spain), it uses shared vision excellently to develop and design its product, it involves frontline salespersons in designing the product in collaboration with the designers, the frontline sales persons are far better equipped than anyone else to give the first hand feedback of customer likes and preferences and this help them living up to customer expectations much faster than any of their competitors.

A learning organization is a proactive organization, it creates environment and conditions to encourage learning. Its approach to handling failure is also very positive, and failure due to bad judgement is not such a dirty word for these organizations as long as there is some learning from it, and the mistake is not repeated. These organizations do not rely on passive or ad hoc process in the hope that organizational learning will take place through providence or as a by-product of normal work. A learning organization actively promotes, facilitates, and rewards collective learning. The main benefits of a learning organization are as follows.

1. Remain competitive by maintaining high level of innovation.

2. Better equipped to handle and respond to external changes and market flux.

3. Providing better customer service and delivering quality due to better knowledge management.

4. Improved output quality both for internal and external customers.

5. Improved corporate image of the organization by becoming more people oriented

6. Increased change of pace and readiness of the organization to handle the pace, reducing the chances of obsolescence.