Business

The Learning Organization

Written by BuddhaBen on August 1, 2007 2:39 pm EST

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The “learning organization” is a concept based on the 1990 work of Peter Senge titled, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Here, Senge defines the learning organization as humans cooperating in dynamical systems that are in a state of continuous adaptation and improvement. The idea is that for a given organization to be successful, it must continually be learning and adapting in order to respond to changes in its environment. Also, because the group itself learns, some aspects of knowledge are retained despite the system losing a member. Essentially, the collective intelligence is greater than, and survives that which is the sum of its parts.

Interestingly enough, Senge equates the experience of learning with the very core of what it means to be human. Through learning and creativity, new experiences are had, new perspectives are formed, and the reality that we once understood changes with every thought. The foundations of The Fifth Discipline lie in three main concepts; 1) organizations who are optimized for learning utilize feedback loops, 2) a learning organization may create an enterprise taxonomy, and 3) an organization must always challenge its processes, instructions, assumptions and basic structure. A true “learning organization” is always redesigning itself.

Finally, the Five Disciplines are laid out to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and growth of an organization. The first, building a shared vision, is similar to that of strategic planning. The second is mental models, which is an explanation in someone’ thought process for how something works (almost like a schema). Next, is team learning, which aims to increase engagement amongst participants. The fourth discipline is personal mastery (self-explanatory), and the fifth discipline is systems thinking, which integrates the other four.

The reason I love this work so much is that it seems so intuitive, yet we see so many (large) companies who are paralyzed by their own success. I currently work with a tech start-up where we have no choice but to operate as a “learning organization”, and for the sake of personal and corporate growth, would have it no other way.

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