What is a Learning Organization?

[Roy Hudec]

How can progressive organizations benefit from being or becoming a learning organization? What are the advantages and disadvantages to this concept?

[Jacqueline]

Your questions are provoking... How are we defining progressive organizations? In a traditional sense the advantage of a transformational change and staff development exceed the pain and time necessary for creating a learning orgainzation.

[Sean Kelley]

Hi Roy. It depends upon how the lerning organization is positioned inside the company. And, how the senior level executives look at training. While in many instances training is the first area that's cut in many organizations, there are those that see the learning organization as a catalyst of change. In a very challenging economy like we're seeing, all employees must change to adapt to the needs of their customers, how the company spends and makes money, and how to help drive shareholder value.

While senior managers continously preach to their employees how they need to change, the only way to help employees change is help them understand what this change looks like (ever tell a 5-year old boy that he "needs to be a good boy" and wonder why he does not change his behavior?), what this means to their roles in the company (to get buy-in and engagement), and then let them practice this newly learned behavior in a simulated environment. This helps employees to quickly understand what this behavior is, and gives them the confidence to apply this back to their jobs. Of course, a long-term reinforcement and accountability plan that is supported by senior levels will ensure that this sticks.

Another role that a learning organization can play is being the eyes and ears of the executive team. Since they interact with employees almost daily, the learning organization can guage and track what employees are learning, what they are applying, and what support they will need.

I've enclosed an article from the Wall Street Journal on how senior managers need to give HR (and training) more respect. There are some very interesting points in it -- including the one from the previous paragraph.

Once this occurs, truly progressive companies will understand the critical roles that a learning organization plays within the company.

Roy, I'm sure this is nothing new -- but it seems that once the learning organization is more dialed in with senior management, it plays a much bigger role in the company compared to other learning organizations.

Hope this helps!

Sean Kelley
Regis Learning Solutions

[Roy Hudec]

Thank you for your insightful narrative and the support materials. I found them to be informative and will share them with my colleagues.

Roy

[Jennifer Whitbeck]

Beyond the role L&D plays in overall corporate governance and change, I look at the shift toward becoming a learning organization from a cultural perspective.

It speaks to how proactively learners at all levels seek out new knowledge and improved performance. In technical architecture terms, those behaviors are enabled by "pull" vs "push" support systems and a high degree of organizational transparency and access to information.

I believe the net result is a more agile workforce and speedier performance improvement.

[Sean Kelley]

Happy to help Roy. Please reach out to me if you wish to discuss further.

Roy Hudec said:

Thank you for your insightful narrative and the support materials. I found them to be informative and will share them with my colleagues.

Roy

[Ralph Hall]

Hi Roy.

I'm not sure an organization can be "progressive" if it is not a learning organization. Sean wrote of the "learning organization" as a training and/or OD department. I think the concept is much larger than that. Certainly Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline was speaking of the entire organization rather than just a department.

We have all probably seen at least one movie with a robot or other machine (ex. iRobot, The Incredibles, etc.) where the machine learns from its experiences. That is the heart and goal of Artificial Intelligence (AI) - the ability to learn as it experiences. We are hopefully not settling for mimicking AI, but rather just using our native I (intelligence) that could be defined as our ability to learn from our (or others') experiences.

One other point, no "organization" can learn - only the individuals within it. Likewise, no "organization" can provide excellent customer service - only the individuals within it. Etc.

So, to your question: If you really want your organization to be a learning organization, you need to build a culture of personal accountability where each individual learns from his or her experiences and behaves differently because of them. The individuals in leadership positions within your organization need to be all about encouraging experience-based, goal-focused, smart change. They should do all they can to tap into what every individual is learning from their experience as they do business.

In The Oz Principle by Connors, Smith, and Hickman, you will find the results pyramid. The concept is that our results are derived from our actions. Our actions are derived from, or built upon, our beliefs. And, our beliefs are formed from our experiences. There is a lot of application of this concept to your question, but one that jumps out is that if an employee suggests a change based on experience they have had, and a leader (or several) dismiss the suggestion, the experience forms a belief that "management does not care about what I have learned". The resulting action is "no more suggestions from me" and a corresponding end of your learning organization. This does not mean that the leaders have to implement every idea, but they need to acknowledge every idea, reward their generation, and implement the best ones. This requires enough humility on the leader's part to be open to ideas that they did not come up with.

It all sounds so simple, but it is so infrequently practiced that leaders continue to wonder why their organizations aren't being as "progressive" as the leaders think they could be. Shake the rigidity loose, open up the minds and hearts to new ideas gleaned from the collective experience of the employees and managers and executives, and let the organization start racing forward!

Best wishes in your quest.

[Roy Hudec]

Ralph may I share your response with my associates? I found your response to be very informative. It seems you have a strong understanding of this concept. Thank you very much.

Roy

[Ralph Hall]

You bet. I'm happy to talk with you more about it if you'd like to discuss it.

Roy Hudec said:

Ralph may I share your response with my associates? I found your response to be very informative. It seems you have a strong understanding of this concept. Thank you very much.

Roy

[Ralph Hall]

Hi Sean.

I would add to the article, and the many other like it that are very employee-need-focused, if HR wants more respect they really need to focus on business results. Retention, for example, is an oft-sited positive result for excellence in HR hiring, training, etc. But really retention is a means to an end, isn't it - and only retention of the right people at that. HR employees would experience dramatic gains in respect if they could say, "not only did we increase our retention by x% over the last 5 years, but that reduced our hiring costs by $xx,000.00 and increased the number of 'experienced manhours on the production floor' by x% each year." While that last bit may not be the best measure in the world (would it inadvertently drive the reported, or worse the real, OJT hours down), the idea is that every HR person needs to know the business. What are the key business results - and how does what I do help us achieve them? If I can't answer that question I need to rethink my approach.

A key piece of creating a learning organization is to tie individual results to company objectives - for every employee. I think the implications for the training/OD function should be really clear.

Onward and upward!


Sean Kelley said:

Hi Roy. It depends upon how the lerning organization is positioned inside the company. And, how the senior level executives look at training. While in many instances training is the first area that's cut in many organizations, there are those that see the learning organization as a catalyst of change. In a very challenging economy like we're seeing, all employees must change to adapt to the needs of their customers, how the company spends and makes money, and how to help drive shareholder value.
...BR>I've enclosed an article from the Wall Street Journal on how senior managers need to give HR (and training) more respect. There are some very interesting points in it -- including the one from the previous paragraph.

Once this occurs, truly progressive companies will understand the critical roles that a learning organization plays within the company.

Roy, I'm sure this is nothing new -- but it seems that once the learning organization is more dialed in with senior management, it plays a much bigger role in the company compared to other learning organizations.

Hope this helps!

Sean Kelley
Regis Learning Solutions

[TED VILLELLA]

Advantages are recognition of reality. Life is change. Learning is changing with intention. This is not a question of whether or not, but of how. (Although it could be a decision to wither or not...)

Advantages are efficiency-clarity of goals-ability to change with intention -perhaps survival in the 21st century...

Disadvantages? Leaders will have to move people out of their cocoons. These cocoons are made of ideas that, if allowed to continue to influence and drive decisions that maintain the status quo, will cause the organization to become anachronistic. I guess my disadvantage is really an advantage in disguise.

[Ayesha Habeeb Omer]

We belive in Sucess @ learning!

[Aniirban Bose]

Hi Roy

I guess that as far as transforming into a learning organization is concerned, a progressive organization needs to focus what measures need to be taken for promoting "learnability" amongst employees.This would have to be in sync with the investments in the learning areas thus working towards a valued 'Employer Brand' .