D'Onofrio Consulting Partners

How to Create a Learning Organization

June 1, 2017 • Organizational Development


Introduction

A 2008 HBR article asked readers, “Is your organization a “learning organization?” The authors of the article posed this question almost two decades after MIT professor Peter Senge first coined the term. In Senge’s landmark book, “The Fifth Discipline”, he proposed five characteristics of a learning organization. In this post, we explore a new article along with its authors’ new construct of a learning organization, as well as some helpful resources to benchmark your organization.


The Learning Organization Revisited

A new article published in Organizational Dynamics, entitled “Revisiting the learning organization: How to create it” by Ho Wook Shin et al makes the case that that smarter leaders are a necessary, but not sufficient condition to face today’s business challenges.

“Competing in an environment of increasing uncertainty and rapidly changing technologies requires that firms rely on the knowledge, skills, and experience of all of their people by creating a learning organization.”

In this very practical paper, the authors outline five critical elements of the learning organization and argue that each one is necessary to build a learning organization:

  1. Establish and communicate a clear sense of direction and purpose
  2. Empower employees at all levels
  3. Accumulate and share internal knowledge
  4. Gathering and integrate external information
  5. Challenge the status quo and enable creativity

Each of the five elements is discussed in detail leveraging case studies, research and other references to make the case for each element. They share five tools and techniques that can help an organization better understand their competitive environments.


Barriers to Becoming a Learning Organization

Strategic Inventory Learning OrganizationThe authors offer six barriers that researchers have identified, including fear of failure, commitment to the status quo, overconfidence, structural and political barriers and time constraints. They propose four actions to overcome these barriers:

  1. Create a sense of urgency
  2. Encourage constructive dissent
  3. Encourage experimentation and risk-taking
  4. Get everyone involved

One of the great takeaways from their paper is the “Strategic Inventory” checklist, designed to relate their key concepts and benchmark practices within an organization. (As shown in the graphic on the right.)

Full Article Link


References and Reading

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