Learning of Organization

 Definition
 Background
 Why a learning Organisation?
 How to create a Learning Organisation
 Why Learning Organisation works
 The future
 Summary
 Learning of
Organization
The Definition

An organisation that learns and encourage learning

amongst its people.It promotes exchange of
information between employees hence creating a
more knowledgeable.This produces a very flexible
organisation where people will accept and adapt to
new ideas and changes through a shared vision.

"A Learning Organisation is one in which people at

all levels, individuals and collectively, are
continually increasing their capacity to produce
results they really care about."
 Three broad questions

 What is Learning ?

 What is Organization ?

 What is Learning Organization ?

 What is Learning ?
 Learning is the acquisition and development
of memories and behaviors, including skills,
knowledge, understanding, values, and
wisdom. It is the product of experience and
the goal of education.
 What is Organization ?
 An organization is a social arrangement which
pursues collective goals, which controls its own
performance, and which has a boundary separating
it from its environment. Company, corporation,
firm, enterprise, authority or institution, or part or
combination thereof, whether incorporated or not,
public or private.
 What is Learning
Organization ?
 The Learning Organization is a concept that is
becoming an increasingly widespread philosophy in
modern companies, from the largest multinationals
to the smallest ventures. What is achieved by this
philosophy depends considerably on one's
interpretation of it and commitment to it .
 Learning of
Organization
Background
The importance of Learning
was put forward by a Chinese
Philosopher, Confucius (551-
479BC). He believed that
everyone should benefit from
Learning.

"Without learning, the wise

become foolish; by learning, the
foolish become wise."

"Learn as if you could never

have enough of learning, as if
you might miss something."
Learning of Organisation
Why a Learning Organizations?
A Company that perform badly is easily
recognisable.Can you spot the sign ?
• Do your employee seem unmotivated or uninterested
in their` work ?
• Does your workforce lack the skill & knowledge to
adjust to new jobs ?
• Do you seem to be the only one to come up with all
ideas?
• And does your workforce simply follow orders ?
• Do your team argue constantly and lack real
productivity?
• or lack communication between each other?
If any of these points sound familiar the answer for
you could be Learning Organisation.
Learning of Organisation
How to Create a Learning Organisation

• The Building Blocks

• Implementation Strategies

• The Golden Rules

• People Behaviour
 Learning of Organisation
The Building Blocks

Before a learning organisations can be implemented ,

a sole foundation can be made by taking into account
the following:

• Awareness
• Environment
• Leadership
• Empowerment
• Learning
Learning of Organisation
• Awareness
Organisation must be aware that learning is
necessary before they can develop into a Learning
organisation.This may seems to be strange statement
but this learning must be take place at all levels, not
just the management level.

• Environment

Centralised, mechanistic structures do not create a

good environment. Individuals do not have a
comprehensive picture of the whole organisation and
its goals. This causes political and parochial systems
to be set up which stifle the learning process.
 Learning of Organisation
•Leadership
Leaders should foster the Systems Thinking concept
and encourage learning to help both the individual
and organisation in learning. It is the leader's
responsibility to help restructure the individual views
of team members.

•Empowerment

The focus of control shifts from managers to workers.

This is where the term Empowerment is introduced.
The workers become responsible for their actions; but
the managers do not lose their involvement. They still
need to encourage, enthuse and co-ordinate the
workers
Learning of Organisation
 Learning

Companies can learn to achieve these aims in

Learning Labs. These are small-scale models of real-
life settings where management teams learn how to
learn together through simulation games. They need
to find out what failure is like so that they can learn
from their mistakes in the future.
Learning of Organisation
Implementation Strategies

Any organisation that wants to implement a learning

organisation philosophy requires an overall strategy
with clear, well defined goals. Once these have been
established, the tools needed to facilitate the strategy
must be identified.

It is clear that everyone has their own interpretation

of the "Learning Organisation" idea, so to produce an
action plan that will transform groups into Learning
Organisations might seem impossible. However, it is
possible to identify three generic strategies that
highlight possible routes to developing Learning
Organisations .
Learning of Organisation
The three strategies are:
Accidental
For many companies, adopting a learning
organisation philosophy is the second step to
achieving this Holy Grail. They may already be taking
steps to achieve their business goals that, in
hindsight, fit the framework for implementing a
Learning Organisation.
Subversive
Once an organisation has discovered the Learning
Organisation philosophy, they must make a decision
as to how they want to proceed. This is a choice
between a subversive and a declared strategy.

`
Learning of Organisation
Declared

The other option is the declared approach. This is

self explanatory. The principles of Learning
Organisations are adopted as part of the company
ethos, become company "speak" and are manifest
openly in all company initiatives.
 Learning of Organisation
The Golden rules

1. Thrive on Change
o Don’t be scared
o Learning Organisations feed on change.
o Go all the way (no half-way house)
o Committed :focused
o Know objectives; plan
 Learning of Organisation
2. Encourage Experimentation
o experimentation is a necessary risk
o individual input rewarded.
o encourage throughout the company

3. Communicate Success and Failure

o review
o assessment (continuous/self)

4. Facilitate learning from the surrounding Environment

o find internal & external source of information
o learn form experience from other companies (open
your eyes).
o above all discuss customer needs
Learning of Organisation
5. Facilitate learning from Employees
o encourage participation and experimentation
(linked to point 2)
o invest in training - multiskilling (getting most from
employees), morale
o empowerment/responsibility
o remove hierarchy

6. Reward Learning
o everybody's wants their work to be appreciated -
boost morale
o benchmarks for performance appraisal
o rewards
 Learning of Organisation
7. A proper Selfishness
o clear goals/objectives
o hints on clarifying objectives

8. A Sense of Caring
o care for the individual
o ways of implementing this care
 Learning of Organisation
People Behavior

Behaviour to Encourage
There are five disciplines (As described by Peter
Senge) which are essential to a learning
organisation and should be encouraged at all
times. These are:
 Team Learning
 Shared Visions
 Mental Models
 Personal Mastery
 Systems Thinking
Learning of Organisation
Behaviour to Discourage
An organisation which is not a learning one also
displays behaviours, however these should
definitely not be encouraged. Rosabeth Moss Kantar
studied a range of large American corporations and
came up with rules for stifling initiative :
• Regard any new idea from below with suspicion
because it is new and because it is from below
• Make decisions to reorganise or change policies in
secret and spring them on people unexpectedly
(that also keeps people on their toes).
Learning of Organisation
Why Learning Organisation Works
2. The People Develop
o Greater Motivation
o The workforce is more flexible
o People are more creative
o Improved social Interaction
2. Teams and group work better
o Knowledge sharing
o Interdependency
Learning of Organisation

Why Learning Organisation Works

3. The Company Benefits

o Breakdown of traditional communication barriers
o Customers relations
o Information resources
o Innovation and creativity
 Learning of Organisation
The Future

In the future the following areas will become

increasingly more important.
• Investment in Learning
• Technology
• Information Highway
• Knowledge is the key
• Unemployment
• Learning Culture
• Customer-Client Relationship
• Conclusion
 Learning of Organisation
Summary
The perfect Learning Organisation is not an attainable
goal ,it is merely a desirable concept: there is no correct
implementation of the Learning Organisation. Every
company can continuously adapt and adjust and some
will be better Learning Organisations than others, but
every one of them has something new to learn.
Finally it should be mentioned that the Learning
Organisation is just a means to a business goal, created
to improve productivity and most importantly profit.
Quite how long this philosophy will remain fashionable
is unknown. What is certain is that for any company in
today's global marketplace continuous change and
adaptation is the only way to survive.