13- Organizational Learning

7/26/2019 13- Organizational Learning

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/13-organizational-learning 1/45

Organizational Learning –

TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Organizational Learning

Technology Management 298

First Semester, 2011-2012

Dr. Serafin D. TalisayonProfessor, Technology Management CenterUniversity of the Philippines




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Poll: What percent of what you know now came

from your formal training and schooling?

Write your answers in a small piece of paper. Wewill compute the average of your answers.




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

A Big Gap in Managing Our Learning

Formal Training andEducation

Learning from Work and the rest of Life

Percent where yourknowledge now came

from

32% 68%

Years you devoted 14+ Depends on your age

Money invested byparents and taxpayers None or nil

Systems set up by the

government Zero

HowConscious planningand deliberate effort

Unconscious or largelyunplanned

Supportive tools andtechnologies

OrganizationalLearning




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Stanford Professors Jeffrey Pfeffer andRobert Sutton noted that despite:

• 1,700 business books published yearly

(1996 data)• $60 billion spent on training

• an estimated $43 billion spent onmanagement consultants, and

• 80,000 MBAs doing business studies,

the changes in actual managementpractice is, correspondingly,

disappointingly little.

―Knowing-Doing Gap‖




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

After four years of studying this ―knowing-doing gap‖, they concluded:

―...one of the most important insightsfrom our research is that knowledge

that is actually implemented is muchmore likely to be acquired from

learning by doing than from learning

by reading, listening, or even thinking.‖

Conclusion of 4-Year Study




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Scope of Organizational LearningContext of K Acquisition ~ Context of K Use

Outside the WorkSetting

Within theWork Setting

Remote from

knowledge use

Academic degreeprograms, conferences,

Professional journals

Corporate universities,

In-house training programs

Proximate

(before or after useof knowledge)

Case studies,Industry benchmarks and

best practices

Work templates & manuals,Reuse of “tips” e.g. Eureka,

Process documentation,Lessons-learned session,

CoP e.g. Solutions Exchange

Immediate

(during use ofknowledge)

Management games,Computerized

simulations, Role playing

Mentoring/coaching,Learning-in-action e.g. CALL,

On-the-job training




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Definition

―A learning organization is anorganization skilled at creating,

acquiring, interpreting, and retaining

knowledge, and at purposefullymodifying its behavior to reflect new

knowledge and new insights.‖

— David Garvin, ―Learning in Action: aGuide to Putting the LearningOrganization to Work‖, Harvard BusinessSchool Press, 2000.




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

5 Skills in Learning Organizations(from Garvin)

• Systematic problem solvingReliance on the scientific method for diagnosing problems

• Experimentation with new approaches

• Learning from past experienceCompanies must review their successes and failures, assess them systematically,

and record the lessons in a form that employees find open and accessible.

• Learning from best practices of othersExample: benchmarking that ensures that best industry practices are uncovered,analyzed, adopted and implemented

• Transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently throughout theorganizationLearning has to be more than a local affair. The art of open, attentive listeninghas to be cultivated. Managers must be open to criticism.




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

5 Skills in Learning Organizations(from Garvin)

Pastexperiences

In YOUR UNITlearning by doing

New practices

Other units inyour organization

Other organizationsin your industry

lessonslearned

testing

transferof bestpractices

knowledgetransfer




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

5 Disciplines in Learning Organizations(from Senge)

• Mental models: Ability to surface beliefs/assumptions about

how the world works (sub-personal level)

• Personal mastery: Capacity for self-learning and self-

management, and for managing the creative tension betweenideal and reality (personal level)

• Team learning: Group skills and aptitudes for thinking and

deciding together (interpersonal level)

• Shared vision: Crafting and holding to a common direction

(organizational level)

• Systems thinking (= ―The Fifth Discipline‖): Ability to see interrelationships in the bigger picture (supra-

organizational level and sub-personal level)




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

5 Disciplines in Learning Organizations(from Senge)

―The central message of The FifthDiscipline is…that our organizationswork the way they work, ultimately,because of how we think and how weinteract.‖

— Peter Senge




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Senge complements Garvin

• Behavioral & psychological

• Intra- & interpersonal

• Remote from bottom line

• Phenomenologically inclined• Systems dynamics

• Applicable to allorganizations

•Managing thinking

• Focus on internal or selfdisciplines

• Operational & managerial

• Intra- & inter-organizational

• Linked to bottom line

• Empirically grounded• Analyses of components

• More applicable to businessorganizations

•Managing actions

• Focus on external orbureaucratic procedures




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Discipline #1: Mental Models

• Awareness of one’s assumptions, premises, concepts andbeliefs (=watching one’s thoughts and thought processes or

―metacognition‖)

• Willingness and ability to make one’s assumptions explicitbefore a group (=making public what is private)

• Willingness to place one’s assumptions to reality check and

utility check (=does not equate mental model with reality)

• Willingness to accept mistakes (=ability to disinvest one’s

ego from one’s assumptions)• Readiness to revise one’s assumptions if warranted

(=readiness to unlearn)




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

If I die a martyr,

God will bring me

direct to Paradise

God gave this

land to me

―Last Palestinian vs. Last Israeli‖




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Our mental models ≠ RealityMental models = Representations of reality

―The problems in the world

stem from the differencebetween how we think andhow the world works.‖

– Gregory Bateson




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Some Tools under Discipline #1

• Left-Hand Column: documentation of one’s thoughtsduring a meeting; the formal minutes of a meeting is the

Right-Hand Column (from Peter Senge)

• Ladder of Inference: detailed description of one’sreasoning processes between one’s observation andresulting conclusion (from Peter Senge)

• Mind Mapping: the ideas one associates with a central

idea, and the interconnections among them (from TonyBuzan)

• Reflection-in-Action e.g. during Double-Loop Learning(from Chris Argyris and Donald Schön)




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Example of a Mind Map




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Discipline #2: Personal Mastery

• Awareness of one’s goals and motives, and ability toconsciously adopt, reexamine or revise them

• Ability to manage the creative tension between the ideal

and reality; commitment to accurately see and acceptreality

• Ability to continuously monitor and evaluate one’s actionsfor self-learning and self-improvement towards a goal

• Willingness to take personal responsibility over one’slearning and growth, and to take initiatives therefrom(Rotter’s ―locus of control‖ is more internal than external)

• Inclination and ability to learn from all experiences




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Continuous Learning and Self-

Improvement: a Personal Responsibility

“Learn as if you will live forever; live as if you

will die tomorrow.”




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Responsibility of National EducationalSystems

(from the UNESCO Delor Commission)

Four important skills forthe 21st Century:

• Learning to do

• Learning to relate

• Learning how to learn

• Learning to be

KM/OL

KM/OL




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Discipline #3: Team Learning

• Ability listen to people from different perspectives andpersuasions (=ability to suspend judgment)

• Ability of a group to explore underlying causes, rules andassumptions to get to deeper questions and creative reframing

of problems (=―out-of-the-box thinking‖)

• Ability of a group to examine what went wrong with minimumdefensive reactions and maximum constructive insights(=mutual goodwill, trust and respect; focus on underlyingcauses of behavior)

• Ability of a group to handle conflicts, reconcile or benefit fromdiversity of viewpoints, and synergize the collection of individualknowledge, insights and thinking styles




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Some Toolsunder Disciplines #2 and #3

• Psychometric assessments of one’s thinking styles andlearning preferences, e.g. MBTI, enneagram, multipleintelligence tests

• Fishbone diagram and Problem tree analysis: groupprocess of discovering the causes of a particular problem

• 5 Whys: group process of discovering the root cause(s) of aparticular problem

• Double-loop learning: discovering through reflection theunderlying systemic and personal causes behind a problem

• Dialogue: set of behavioral tools to help a team think anddecide productively together




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Sample Problem Tree Analysis




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Discipline #4: Shared Vision

• Ability of a group to craft a vision that fosters genuinecommitment rather than compliance

• The vision affirms and overlaps with personal visions ofmembers thus providing them intrinsic motivation and energy

• The vision is a rudder that focuses group and individual learningespecially when stresses affect the organization

• The shared vision builds corporate persona or identity.

―We commissioned the study… to examine the question of corporatelongevity… After all of our detective work, we found… [that] Long -livedcompanies were cohesive, with a strong sense of identity.‖

– Arie de Geuz




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Discipline #5: Systems Thinking

• Ability to see the whole (=―seeing the forest‖ and not just the trees)

• Ability to see multiple interrelationships, and new or unexpectedconnections

• Ability to see how policies and structures create patterns of behavior

• Ability to see non-linear relationships: negative and positivefeedback loops, discontinuities, economies/diseconomies of scale,

delayed effects

• Careful in drawing conceptual boundaries and categories; awareness

of how labels and constructs limit perception and judgment

• Deep respect for reality and desire to see it with greatest clarity,

completeness and accuracy




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Some Tools under Discipline #5

• Causal flow diagram or system digraph: identifyingall factors or variables relevant to an issue and the

assumptions or beliefs about the causal connections

between these variables• Multifunctional team: a team intentionally composed of

members from different disciplines or functional areas

• Systems dynamics: a computerized mathematical

modelling and simulation of how the variables in acomplex system behaves together

• Cross-posting: short period of work assignment of aknowledge worker in a different functional division




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Organizational Learning ProcessesIndividual tacit K Group explicit K back to individual tacit K

ExplicitKnowledge

TacitKnowledge

InstitutionalMemory

Individual Knowledge Group Knowledge

D o c u m e n t g o o d

p r a c t i c e ,

M a n u a l i z a t i o n ,

b l o g

mentoring, storytelling

lecture, e-learning

V i s i o n i n g e x e r c i s e

practice

OrganizationalBrain




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Single-loop learningvery common: vertical

Boss = learner

Action by staff

Monitors and evaluates Orders corrective action




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Single-loop learningalso common: vertical

Project evaluator

Action by project staff

Reviews and evaluatesSubmits evaluationreport which guides nextprojects

Administrators




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Single-loop learningLess common: horizontal

Examples: quality circles, productivityimprovement teams

E =learner

A =learner

D =learner

C =learner

B =learner

Teamlearning




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Vertical and Horizontal LearningOrganizations display a mix of the two modes

CEO,

owner orfinancier

employee,

worker

orders,

corrective

instructions

reports,

monitoring,

evaluation

A

D

B

C

F

E

feedback

feedback feedback

feedback

feedback feedback

Appropriate for urgent andstandardized tasks

Appropriate for tasksrequiring creativity or

continuous improvement




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Double-loop learningLeast common

B =learner C =learner A =learner

An additional learning loop is installed within

each team member (conscious self-feedback):




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Executive

subordinates

A, B, C…

monitoring &

evaluationcorrections

Vertical learning orauthority feedback: very

common (only the boss

learns; subordinates obey)

A

B

C

Horizontal learning or

peer feedback or team

learning: less common

(everyone learns)

B CA

Personal learning or conscious self feedback: rare

D o

u b l e - l o o p l e a r n

i n g

Double-Loop Learning(from Argyris)

Team

feedback feedback

feedback

S i n g l e - l o o

p l e a r n i n g




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Double-loop learningleast common

In double-loop learning, each member:

• Habitually practices ―reflection in action‖

• Checks/discusses his learning with others in

his team

• Takes personal responsibility in taking needed

action at his level

―Leaders and subordinates alike… must all begin struggling witha new level of self- awareness, candor and responsibility.‖ – Chris Argyris




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Stretching the Envelope ofProductivity

Type of Learning What are Addressed

Single-loopvertical

skills

behavior

Single-loopvertical and horizontal

mental models

skillsbehavior

Double-loopincludes vertical and/or

horizontal loops

behavioral blocks/defenses

mental modelsskills

behavior

Senge’scontribution

Argyris’contribution

conventionalapproaches




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Learning of the Second Kind

―The state at the bottom of the ―U‖is presencing – seeing from thedeepest source and becoming a

vehicle for that source.‖ – Peter Senge et al., 2004

Peter Senge

…a ―second type‖ of learning …from afuture that has not yet happened andfrom …discovering our part in bringing

that future to pass.‖




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Presencing: Drawing from theWellspring of Innovation

Bestpractitioner

NEXT PRACTICE

Transfer ofbest practice =copying from

the past

Innovating NEXTPRACTICE =

learning from thefuture

Underground Stream

conscious

unconscious

Presencing




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

The Third Envelope: Psychological

―Peter Senge’s advocacy of the learning organizationhelped begin a revolution in the workplace. And, the

relevance of Senge’s work is growing rather thandiminishing over time. As more businesses go global,the need to overcome psychological barriers to

necessary organizational change increases.‖

— Management Today, 1999




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

The ―Living Company‖ Royal Dutch Shell study of Fortune 500 firms (de Geus):

• Average life expectancy: 40-50 yrs

• 1/3 of 1970 firms were gone by 1983

• Four key attributes of long-lived (>100 years old) firms:

“Living Company” Living Organisms

1- Ability to learn or adapt - Responds, learns, adapts

2- Cohesion and identity (corporate persona) - Integrity, self-repair

3- Tolerance of differences, eccentricities andexperimentations; decentralized; open to otherpossibilities

- Grows, reproduces,mutates/evolves

4- Financially conservative - Self-preservation/defense




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Business Case for KM

• Winners in 2006 Global MAKE (Most AdmiredKnowledge Enterprises) Award earned in 1995-2005 anaverage of 24.2% Total Return to Investors comparedto Fortune 500 median of 10.8% (2x better)

• Winners in 2007:

2007 Global MAKE Winners

Accenture Google Royal Dutch Shell

Apple IBM Samsung Group

BP Infosys 3MBBC Intel Toyota

Ernst & Young McKinsey Wikipedia

Fluor Microsoft Wipro

GE Nokia




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

8-Part Framework of MAKE Award(from Rory Chase of Teleos)




TM 298 –

SDTalisayon

Organizational Learning is Crucial

―The ultimate competitiveadvantage lies in an

organization’s ability to learn andto rapidly transform that learninginto action.‖

— Jack WelchFormer CEO, General Electric



NOTE: Some images in this presentation may be copyrighted material

downloaded from the Internet. Therefore, this presentation is only for theacademic purposes of this course and should not be redistributed to

anyone outside of this class.

Documents

13- Organizational Learning