I have rummaged through all the books I have on learning/learning
organisations and found the following definitions and am still making
sense of these these to come out with an interesting definition. Being the
learning organisation list I thought some of you might havedefined
learning organisation in a simple way - that even your grandmother could
understand, as they say.
To help you with your thinking process I am stating the definitions I have
come across so far:
Defining a Learning Organisation (LO)
...From The Fifth Discipline - Peter Senge
The organisations that will truly excel in the future will be the
organisations that discover how to tap people's commitment and capacity to
learn at all levels in an organisation. They will be "LOs" where people
continually expand their capacity to create the results that they truly
desire, where new patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective
aspiration is set free and where people are continually learning how to
learn together.
Five disciplines provide a vital dimension in building organisations that
can truly 'learn'. They are personal mastery, mental models, shared
vision, team learning and systems thinking.
...Building the LO - Michael J. Marquardt.
An organisation which learns powerfully and collectively and is
continually transforming itself to better collect, manage and use
knowledge for corporate success. It empowers people within or outside the
company to learn as they work. Technology is utilized to optimize both
learning and productivity.
...Becoming a Learning Organisation - Beyond the Learning Curve: Joop
Swieringa and Andre Wierdsma
Essentially LOs are not only capable of learning, but also learning to
learn. They are not only able to become competent but also to remain
competent. LOs have mastered the art of adapting quickly on the one hand
and preserving their own direction and identity on the other. This is what
we understand as development.
We do not know precisely what LOs look like. But we have the courage to
say about the learning principles which underlie a LO.
1. Problem centred, cyclic learning and learning by doing.
2. Collective learning
3. Conscious learning
4. Multilateral learning
A LO is one which learns 'multilaterally'. It is designed so that there
are sufficient differences to keep the dialogue at all these levels of
learning - rules, insights and principles - going and open. The question
is 'to what extent this difference is desirable'. A characteristic feature
of LO is variety:
People - thinkers alongside doers, reflectors along deciders,
individualists alongside team players, technically oriented alongside
commercially oriented.
Strategies - Planned rational strategies alongside pragmatic intuitive
strategies
Structures - Simple lines alongside complex matrices
Cultures - Task culture alongside individual culture, role culture
alongside power culture
Systems - complex alongside simple. systems for action and systems for
reflection.
Thus a LO consciously permits contradictions and paradoxes
5. Learning to learn:
...Karen Watkins and Victoria Marsick - Sculpting the LO
A LO is a place that empower its people, integrates quality initiative
with quality of worklife, creates free space for learning, encourages
collaboration and sharing gains, promotes inquiry and creates continuous
learning opportunities... Learning in LOs changes perceptions, behaviours,
beliefs, mental models, strategies, policies and procedures in people and
organisations.
...Micahel Beck - LOs: How to create them?
LO is one that facilitates learning and personal development for all its
employees while continually transforming itself.
...Alastair Rylatt: Learning Unlimited
A LO must demonstrate a commitment to each of the following principles in
the workplace:
1. Build systems that output learning
2. Sponsor personal excellence
3. Create new mental models
4. Mould a shared vision
5. Promotes teamwork:
6. Perfecting double loop learning
...Alan Mumford - Learning at the Top
The LO is one that creates an environment where the behaviours and
practices involved in continuous development are actively encouraged.
...Mike Pedler, John Burgoyne and Tom Boydell - The learning company
Although the authors do not use the term learning organisation it is a
definition that will be useful to consider.
A learning company which facilitates the learning of all its members and
continually transforms itself.
A penny for your 'learned' thoughts
Regards
Shankar
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Shankar Sankaran
9 Upper Bukit Timah View #03-03
Bukit Regency
Singapore 588136
shankar@singnet.com.sg
Ph: (065) 4661244 (home)
Ph: (065) 7809455 (off.)
Fax:(065) 7862751 (off.)
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--shankar@singnet.com.sg (S. Sankaran)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>