Are You A Learning Organization?

Organizations need to learn more than ever before!

Corporate mortality rates are on the rise. Is this only a symptom of a deeper problem that afflicts organizations causing some to perish and many to fail to live up to their potential?

Are organizations institutionalizing mediocrity when excellence is a possibility? The concept of a learning organization isn’t new. In the 90s, Peter Senge in his book, The Fifth Discipline, talked about learning disabilities of an organization and the impact it has. It is interesting that the words “whole” and “health” come from the same root (the Old English ‘hal’, as in “hale and hearty”). So it should come as no surprise that the unhealthiness of our learning today is in direct proportion to our inability to see it as a ‘whole’.  
 
A holistic approach to learning requires a supportive learning environment that emphasizes psychological safety, an appreciation of differences, openness to new ideas and time for reflection. It requires fit for purpose concrete learning processes and practices including experimentation, creating, acquiring, interpreting, transferring, retaining and applying knowledge and a leadership team that actively promotes and reinforces learning. 

Organizations need to learn more than ever before! Each organization must become a learning organization if it has to survive, sustain and grow. A learning organization has a compelling vision of employees skilled at “Creating”, “Acquiring”, “Transferring” and “Applying” knowledge. Such learning organizations are more agile and have the ability to respond faster to changing environments compared to their competitors. As a result, they continuously deliver higher performance. They are quick to modify their behavior to respond to those new knowledge and insights based on changing business conditions.

Such organizations experiment to develop and test new products and services; gather intelligence to keep track of current and emerging business trends, have a disciplined approach to analyze, interpret and solve business problems using new knowledge and insights. They are always looking for more efficient and effective ways to improve the capacity and capabilities of their employees.

The rate at which you and your employees learn may well become your only competitive sustainable advantage

In today’s workplace, where constant and rapid change is necessary to remain competitive, the best strategy is to create multi-faceted and flexible learning eco-systems, educate the learner on being a smart consumer, set and maintain context, and get out of the learner’s way.
Learning fitness or learning health is your collective ‘abilities’ to perform. Organizations outperforming their competitors are seen to have a healthier learning ecosystem and are therefore:  
 

It is not uncommon for an organization to exhibit early warning signs before deteriorating or dying. The key to optimal outcomes is recognition of these warning signs followed by an appropriate and timely response. Very often, the culmination of these signs shows up in lower engagement scores in which learning and development scores are unfavorable, ultimately leading to high attrition. Exit surveys consistently show that people leave organizations citing career advancement and development as a key reason.

Research has evidenced that organizations that are recognized as ‘Best Employers’ offer differentiated career growth and learning opportunities to their employees. But yet again, many aren’t performing to their potential. 

Measuring and managing your organizational learning health is critical. Many organizations are unaware of what’s broken and missing. 

Each of the building blocks of a learning organization is itself multidimensional and inter-connected. Individual elements respond to different forces. You can enhance the learning health of an organization in various ways, depending on which subcomponent you emphasize.

This article first appeared here.