The Learning Organization

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The Learning Organization

• Integrating Individual, Team, and Organizational
  Learning
• Lyle Yorks
• Department of Organization Leadership
• Teachers College, Columbia University

2
Learning What is it?
The word Learning undoubtedly denotes Change of
some kind. To say what kind of change is a
delicate matter. (Gregory Bateson an ecology of
mind)
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Quinn- Two Domains of Learning

• Abstract Knowledge involving know what and know
  why
• Knowing in practice involving know how and care
  why

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Mezirow Domains of Learning and Frames of
Reference

• Two Domains of Learning
• Instrumental learning to control and manipulate
  the environment
• Communicative learning what others mean when
  they communicate with you

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Mezirow Domains of Learning and Frames of
Reference - Continued

• Meaning Structures Frames of Reference kinds
  of learning
• Habit of Mind (Meaning perspective) A set of
  assumptions, a broad generalized predisposition
• Point of View (Meaning scheme) sets of
  immediate specific expectations

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Why Learning is Important

• The law of requisite variety
• For an organization/system to survive its rate of
  learning must be equal or greater (L gt C) than
  the rate of change in its environment
• Ecologist and Complexity Theorist Ross Ashby
  (1958)

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A Basic Principle of Sustaining Performance at
the Individual, Group and Organizational Level
The rate of learning has to equal or exceed the
rate of change in the larger environment! (Reg
Revans Seminal writer of action learning)
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The Same Principle Paraphrased
When the rate of change in the marketplace
exceeds the rate of change in the organization,
the end is in sight. (Jack Welch CEO, General
Electric)
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Three Key Concepts

• Learning in Organization Members learn on
  behalf of the organization
• Learning by Organization When this individual
  learning in organization has organization level
  outputchanges that are captured and widely
  utilized by the organization
• Organizational learning mechanismssystems and
  processes operated by organizational members to
  enable organizational learning.
• Popper and Lipschitz

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An Organizational Learning Mechanism can be

• Integrated the organizational members who
  generate the learning are responsible for
  applying it
• Non integrated the members who generate
  learning are not the ones who apply it
• Designated Learning takes place away from task
  performance
• Dual purpose Learning is carried out in
  conjunction with task performance

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Teams and Groups as Organizational Learning
Mechanisms Integrating Learning in Organization
with Learning by Organization
Organization
Team
Individual
Individual
Team
Individual
Individual
Individual
Individual
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Organizational Learning is Captured in

• Practices, Policies
• Core Competencies
• Norms
• Knowledge management systems
• Stories
• Culture

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Team Learning Modes and Processes (Kasl, Marsick,
Dechant)
Team Learning Mode Definitions
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Team Learning Modes and Processes (Kasl, Marsick,
Dechant)
Team Learning Model Process Definitions
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Shared Organization Learning Values (Popper
Lipshitz)
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Team Learning Requires the Creation of
Collaborative Social Space

• Through practices that change relationships
  through changing conversations,
• exposing the members to the ideas of others,
  while paving the way for collective learning
  through suspending assumptions by creating a
  mechanism for bridging diversity.

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The Paradox of Diversity
The more diverse the perspectives among a group
of inquirers, the more likely it is that they
will challenge each others habits of mind and
points of view.
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The Paradox of Diversity
At the same time, the more diverse the inquirers,
the less likely it is that they will be able to
create an empathic field the enables them to
understand the others point of view, thus
blocking their capacity to lead each other toward
new insights, growth, and transformative
practices.
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Patterns that Inhibit/Block Team and
Organizational Learning

• Defensive routines
• Constraining mental models (i.e. frames of
  referencepoints of view)
• Prevailing undiscussables

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Patterns that Inhibit/Block Team and
Organizational Learning

• Defensive routines
• Constraining mental models (i.e. points of view)
• Prevailing undiscussables
• No Learning No Change

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Introduction of Practices from the Organizational
Learning Literature for Facilitating Reflective
Inquiry.The practices are intended to enable the
delicate balance needed for collaborative
conversations across diverse perspectives

• Reflection and Dialogue
• Left-Hand Column
• Spectrum Policy
• Ladder of Inference
• Learning Window
• Capturing the learning sessions

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Reflection and Dialogue

• Reflection
• Content, Process, and Premise
• Dialogue
• Each person states his or her thoughts, ideas,
  observations, and feelings and listens to those
  of others without responding to individuals. The
  group as a whole system is addressed, not
  individuals. Purpose is to get the all the
  thinking out before general conversation.

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Left Hand Column
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Spectrum Policy

• Generally, ideas are not all good or all
  bad--there are a spectrum of qualities

_

Advantages
Disadvantages
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Spectrum Policy

• Some ideas are better than others (they have a
  wide positive spectrum

------
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Spectrum Policy

• Some ideas are better than others (they have a
  wide positive spectrum)
• other ideas have a wide negative spectrum

------
---------------------------------------------

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Spectrum Policy, cont.

• The tendency is to focus on the negative--this
  leads to a debate over whether the idea is bad or
  good
• The more creative the idea easier it is to focus
  on the negative.

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Spectrum Policy cont.

• The alternative is to first inquire into and
  discuss the advantages, or benefits, of the idea
• Then inquire into and discuss the negatives, or
  downsides
• Create opinions to make the idea work and realize
  the benefits and minimize the downsides
• If some negatives can not be overcome, seek to
  build composite ideas.

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LEARNING WINDOW
KNOWING
DISCOVER
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Figure 3 Through the Learning Window Existing

Knowledge Organization
What We Know What We
Think We Know
Knowledge
What We Know We ?Openness
to the Dont know
Unexpected Emergence

Discovery






Intended
Organization
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The Learning Window
In retrospect, it is clear that we focused
increased attention on this quadrant, over time.
This shift in focus impacted every aspect of our
research process and the development,
implementation, and evaluation of interventions.
What we Know Why we Know it
What we Think we Know What we Need to
Discover to Actually Know it
KNOWING
What we Know we do Not Know
We must be open to what we do not expect
DISCOVERY
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Building Social Action Maps
Governing Conditions Generic Actions Impact on
the Organization Learning Needs
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Team Learning Teams Require the Creation of
Collaborative Social Space

• The practices are intended to enable the delicate
  balance need for collaborative conversations
  across diverse perspectives.

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COLLABORATIVE SPACE Negotiated acceptance of
earlier tensions Equality Shared leadership
responsible for design, action,
evaluation Structured emergence Inquiry skills,
dialogue discussion Deep active listening
Common lexicon Surfacing testing of
assumptions, theories ideas Multiple practices
theories Integration of quantitative
qualitative data Structured periodic
reflection Insider/outsider role duality Feeling
that collaborative space is different Critical
subjectivity consensus validity
Question arises out of organizations needs
Essential enabling conditions
Questions over validity of data method of
inquiry
Lens of mutual peripheral understanding of
others world view Growing understanding of
question context Role ambiguity
Reaching out to existing networks
Tension over control, timing action plans
Searching for other co-interested parties
Functional role separation
Organizing activities
Threshold
Enrollment
Negotiations Leading to Peripheral Understanding
Dependent on time spent in collaboration
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A Final Thought Relevant for both Inquiry and
Leadership

• No problem can be solved from the same level of
  consciousness that created it. We must learn to
  see the world anew
• Albert Einstein