Building a Learning Organization

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Building a Learning Organization

• David A. Garvin

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Introduction

• Continuous improvement programs Up
• Require a commitment to learning
• Failed programs outnumber successful ones
• Learning is important to understand change
• Large part of idea remains murky, confused and
  difficult to penetrate
• What is a learning organization?
• Senges utopian academic dream

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What is a Learning Organization?

• A learning organization is an organization
  skilled at
• creating,
• Acquiring
• transferring knowledge
• modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge
  and insights
• New ideas are essential if learning is to occur
• Ideas cannot change an organization, it can only
  trigger organizational improvement
• Requires both generation and distribution

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Building Blocks

• Learning organizations are skilled at five main
  activities
• Systematic problem solving
• Experimentation with new approaches
• Learning from their own experience
• Transferring knowledge quickly efficiently
  throughout the organization
• Each is accompanied by its own distinctiveness

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Systematic Problem Solving

• Founded on philosophy and methods of the quality
  movement
• The underlying ideas include
• Relying on the scientific method for diagnosing
  problem
• Data as a background for decision making
• Using statistical tools to organize data and draw
  inferences

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Experimentation

• Systematic searching for and testing of new
  knowledge
• Motivated by opportunity and expanding horizons
• Two main forms
• Ongoing programs
• continuing series of small experiments designed
  to produce incremental gains in knowledge
• ensure a steady flow of new ideas
• incentive system that favors risk taking
• Demonstration programs
• first projects to embody principles and
  approaches that the organization hopes to adopt
  later on a larger scale
• implicitly establish policy guidelines and
  decision rules for later projects
• encounter severe tests of commitment
• strong multifunctional teams reporting directly
  to senior management
• All forms of experimentation seek the same end
  moving from superficial knowledge to deep
  understanding

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Learning from Past experience

• Failure is the ultimate teacher
• Learn from your mistakes
• Learning processes need not be expensive
• Fresh perspectives could be brought by outsiders,
  especially customers
• Steal Ideas Shamelessly or Benchmarking adopts,
  analyzes industry practices
• The greatest benefits come from studying
  practices rather than the results

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Transferring Knowledge

• Measuring learning
• learning curves including half-life
• manufacturing progress functions
• experience curves
• These only focus on results
• Learning experience curves are widely used in
  the aerospace, defense and electronics industries
• These measures are incomplete for organizations
  planning on becoming learning organizations

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Transferring Knowledge

• Organizational learning can usually be traced
  through three overlapping stages
• First step is cognitive
• Second is behavioral
• Third is performance improvement
• A complete learning audit must include all three
• A comprehensive learning audit also measures
  performance
• Without performance measurement, companies would
  lack a rationale for investing in learning

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First Steps

• First step is to foster an environment conducive
  to learning
• Training in a slow, methodical way is essential
• Stimulate exchange of ideas and open up
  boundaries
• Boundaries inhibit flow of information