SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS

1. “To create a culture and en
vironment that will act as th
e foundation for a learning org
anization begins with "a shift o
f mind - from seeing ourselves
as separate from the worl
d to connected to the world"
(Senge 1996,37)

2. Dimensions of Learning Organization
LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS
 Building Blocks of Learning Organization
 Leadership in Learning Organization
 How to Build Learning Organization
 BEST Companies
by: ERWIN S. VICTORIANO

3. What is LEARNING ORGANIZATION?
A learning organization is the
business term given to a
company that facilitates the
learning of its members and
continuously transforms itself. The
concept was coined through the
work and research of
Peter Senge and his colleagues.
Learning organizations
develop as a result of
the pressures facing
modern organizations
and enables them to
remain competitive in
the business
environment.

4. According to Richard Karash, learning
organizations are healthier places to
work because they:
Garner
independent
thought
Improve
quality
Develop a
more
committed
work force
Stretch
perceived
limits
Give people
hope that
things can
get better
Increase
ability to
manage
change Are in touch
with a
fundamental
part of our
humanity

6.  SYSTEMS THINKING
The notion of treating the organization as a complex system
composed of smaller (often complex) systems. This requires an under-
standing of the whole, as well as the components, not unlike the way a
doctor should understand the human body.
 PERSONAL MASTERY
Senge describes this as a process where an individual strives to
enhance his vision and focus his energy, and to be in a constant state of
learning.
 MENTAL MODELS
"Deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures
and images that influence how we understand the world and how we take
action" .

7.  SHARED VISION
Shared vision is a powerful motivator. A leader's vision does
not necessarily become shared by those below him. The key here is to
pass on a picture of the future.
 TEAM LEARNING
The state where team members think together to achieve
common goals. It builds on shared vision, adding the element of
collaboration.

8. Organizational research over the past two decades has revealed
three broad factors that are essential for organizational learning and
adaptability: a supportive learning environment, concrete learning
processes and practices, and leadership behavior that provides
reinforcement. We refer to these as the building blocks of the learning
organization. Each block and its discrete subcomponents, though vital to
the whole, are independent and can be measured separately.

9. BUILDING BLOCK 1:
A supportive learning environment
An environment that supports learning has four distinguishing characteristics:
 Psychological safety
 Appreciation of differences
 Openness to new ideas
 Time for reflection

10. BUILDING BLOCK 1:
A supportive learning environment
Psychological safety
To learn, employees cannot fear being belittled or marginalized when they
disagree with peers or authority figures, ask naive questions, own up to mistakes, or
present a minority viewpoint. Instead, they must be comfortable expressing their
thoughts about the work at hand.

11. BUILDING BLOCK 1:
A supportive learning environment
Appreciation of differences
Learning occurs when people become aware of opposing ideas. Recognizing
the value of competing functional outlooks and alternative worldviews increases energy
and motivation, sparks fresh thinking, and prevents lethargy and drift.

12. BUILDING BLOCK 1:
A supportive learning environment
Openness to new ideas
Learning is not simply about correcting mistakes and solving problems. It is al
so about crafting novel approaches. Employees should be encouraged to take risks and
explore the untested and unknown.

13. BUILDING BLOCK 1:
A supportive learning environment
Time for reflection
All too many managers are judged by the
sheer number of hours they work and the tasks they
accomplish. When people are too busy or overstressed
by deadlines and scheduling pressures, however, their
ability to think analytically and creatively is
compromised. They become less able to diagnose
problems and learn from their experiences. Supportive
learning environments allow time for a pause in the
action and encourage thoughtful review of the
organization’s processes.
.

14. To change a culture of blame and silence about errors at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of
Minnesota, COO Julie Morath instituted a new policy of “blameless reporting” that encouraged
replacing threatening terms such as “errors” and “investigations” with less emotionally laden terms such
as “accidents” and “analysis.” For Morath, the culture of hospitals must be, as she told us, “one of every
one working together to understand safety, identify risks, and report them with out fear of blame.” The
result was that people started to collaborate throughout the organization to talk about and change
behaviors, policies, and systems that put patients at risk. Over time, these learning activities yielded
measurable reductions in preventable deaths and illnesses at the institution.
BEST PRACTICES

15. BUILDING BLOCK 2:
Concrete learning processes and practices
For maximum impact, knowledge must be shared in systematic and clearly
defined ways. Sharing can take place among individuals, groups, or whole
organizations. Knowledge can move laterally or vertically within a firm. The knowledge
-sharing process can, for instance, be internally focused, with an eye toward taking
corrective action.
They include experimentation to develop and test new products and services
; intelligence gathering to keep track of competitive, customer, and technological
trends; disciplined analysis and interpretation to identify and solve problems; and
education and training to develop both new and established employees.
A learning organization is not cultivated effortlessly. It arises from a
series of concrete steps and widely distributed activities, not unlike the
workings of business processes such as logistics, billing, order fulfillment, and
product development. Learning processes involve the generation, collection,
interpretation, and dissemination of information.

16. Perhaps the best known example of this approach is the U.S. Army’s After Action Review
(AAR) process, now widely used by many companies, which involves a systematic debriefing after
every mission, project, or critical activity. This process is framed by four simple questions: What did we
set out to do? What actually happened? Why did it happen? What do we do next time? (Which
activities do we sustain, and which do we improve?) In the army, lessons move quickly up and down
the chain of command, and laterally through sanctioned websites. Then the results are codified by the
Center for Army Lessons Learned, or CALL. Such dissemination and codification of learning is vital for
any organization.
BEST PRACTICES

17. BUILDING BLOCK 3:
Leadership that reinforces learning
Organizational learning is strongly
influenced by the behavior of leaders. When leaders
actively question and listen to employees—and there
by prompt dialogue and debate—people in the
institution feel encouraged to learn. If leaders signal
the importance of spending time on problem
identification, knowledge transfer, and reflective post
-audits, these activities are likely to flourish.
When people in power demonstrate through their own
behavior a willingness to entertain alternative points of view,
employees feel emboldened to offer new ideas and options.

18. Harvey Golub, former chief executive of American Express, was renowned for his ability to
teach employees and managers. He pushed hard for active reasoning and forced managers to think
creatively and in unexpected ways. A subordinate observed that he often “came at things from a different
angle” to ensure that conventional approaches were not accepted without first being scrutinized. “I am far
less interested in people having the right answer than in their thinking about issues the right way,” Golub
told us. “What criteria do they use? Why do they think the way they do? What alternatives have they
considered? What premises do they have? What rocks are they standing on?” His questions were not
designed to yield particular answers, but rather to generate truly open-minded discussion.
BEST PRACTICES

19. Senge emphasized the role of the leader in the creation of this
learning organization. He defined three leadership roles (1990) that would
reshape the old-fashioned approach to being the boss. These are:

20.  LEADER AS DESIGNER
Senge likens this to being the designer of a ship rather than
its captain. He defined it in three ways:
 Creating a common vision with shared values and purpose.
 Determining the "policies, strategies, and structures that translate
guiding ideas into business decisions."
 Creating effective learning processes which will allow for
continuous improvement of the policies, strategies, and structures.

21.  LEADER AS TEACHER
The leader here is seen as a coach that works with the ment
al models present in the organization. He must understand the
(usually tacit) concepts of reality and restructure these views "to see
beyond the superficial conditions and events [and] into the underlying
causes of the problems."

22.  LEADER AS STEWARD
This is the vaguest of the three and refers largely to the
attitude of the leader. He emphasizes the importance of a leader that
feels he is part of something greater; whose desire is first and
foremost not to lead, but to serve this greater purpose of building
better organizations and reshaping the way businesses operate.

23. 1. Remember that corporate learning is
"informal" and HR doesn't own it.
If you ask any business leader "how people learn," their most common
answer is "on the job." And this is correct - sales people learn by making sales
calls, engineers learn by doing design, customer service people learn by solving
problems. The key to success then is not to provide a lot of formal training, but
rather create an environment that supports rapid on-the-job learning.

24. 2. Promote and reward expertise.
Today's workforce is more specialized than ever. Your most talented
people in sales, manufacturing, engineering, and design are not in management
- they are doing their jobs. High-impact learning organizations unleash these
experts and put in place programs to promote and reward even greater levels of
expertise.

25. 3. Unleash the power of experts.
Since you know these experts are there, let them share information and
make them available to others. Do you have an internal directory of experts
which enables them to promote their own skills and experience? Easy to build
and something every company should have. And remember that experts are
everywhere, so let people share what they've learned easily.

26. 4. Demonstrate the value of formal training.
Formal training has not gone away, and it still plays a huge role in
career development and professional networking. If you have lots of formal
training available, managers should be incented to promote such opportunities
and help people make time to learn. Yes, it might take them away from their jobs
for a few days, but ultimately the return is much greater productivity and
satisfaction.

27. 5. Allow people to make mistakes.
The best organizational learning (and individual learning) occurs right
after you make a huge mistake. These are the most important learning
opportunities your company has.

28. The airline industry is often mocked for grumpy employees and
poor customer service, but Southwest Airlines bucks those trends. Customers
loyal to Southwest often point to happy and friendly employees who try hard to
help.
Southwest isn’t new to the game. It’s been in operation for 43 years
. Yet somehow, during all that time, the company has managed to communicate
its goals and vision to employees in a way that makes them a part of a unified
team. Southwest also gives employees “permission” to go that extra mile to
make customers happy, empowering them to do what they need to do to meet
that vision.
Southwest Airlines
Takeaway: Employees who are convinced of a larger common goal are
people who are excited to be part of a larger purpose.

29. Employees of Twitter can’t stop raving about the company’s
culture. Rooftop meetings, friendly coworkers and a team-oriented
environment in which each person is motivated by the company’s goals
have inspired that praise.
Employees of Twitter can also expect free meals at the San
Francisco headquarters, along with yoga classes and unlimited vacation
s for some. These and many other perks are not unheard of in the
startup world. But what sets Twitter apart?
Employees can’t stop talking about how they love working
with other smart people. Workers rave about being part of a company
that is doing something that matters in the world, and there is a sense
that no one leaves until the work gets done.
 Twitter
Takeaway: You can’t beat having team members who are pleasant and
friendly to each other, and are both good at and love what
they are doing. No program, activity or set of rules tops having
happy and fulfilled employees who feel that what they are
doing matters.

30. While Google still gets stellar reviews for pay, perks
and advancement, there are alsosome employees who note
growing pains that you’d expect from such a huge company,
including the stress associated with a competitive environment.
Hiring and expecting the best from employees can easily
become a stressor if your culture doesn’t allow for good
work-life balance.
 Google
Takeaway: Even the best culture needs to revisit itself to meet a
growing company’s team. The most successful company culture
leads to successful business, and that requires an evolving
culture that can grow with it.

31. Facebook has the same struggles as similar companies: a
highly competitive industry leads to a sometimes stressful and
competitive workplace. Additionally, a free and organic organizational
structure that worked for the smaller organization is less successful for
the larger one.
To meet these challenges, Facebook has created conference
rooms, has separate buildings, lots of outdoor roaming space for breaks
and has management (even CEO Mark Zuckerberg) working in the open
office space alongside other employees. It’s an attempt at a flat
organizational culture using the buildings and space itself to promote a
sense of equality among the competition.
 Facebook
Takeaway: When your company depends on new hires who excel in a
competitive field, your company culture and any associated
perks will likely be the tipping point for applicants. You must
stand out from other companies vying for attention.

32. To end:
Let us ponder on this:

33. Thank you and May God
continue to bless us as
we pursue our noble pro
fession! <3
-- Sir Erwin 