The Learning Organization: An Interview with a Branch Chief Christopher Shipper MSM620 – Learning Management and Mastery

Introduction Senge, 1990

What is a Learning Organization? Learning organizations “facilitate the learning of all its member and continuously transforms itself” Learning organizations “are characterized by total employee involvement in a process of collaboratively conducted, collectively accountable change directed towards shared values or principles” Learning organizations “are organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together” Smith, 2001, para

Does IMD fit into these definitions?

What is a Learning Organization? Common characteristics of learning organizations: “provide continuous learning opportunities use learning to reach their goals link individual’s performance with organizational performance foster inquiry and dialogue, making it safe for people to share openly and take risks embrace creative tensions as sources of energy and renewal are continually aware of and interact with their environment” Smith, 2001, para. 19

How do IMD’s past, present, and future initiatives reflect these characteristics?

What makes the Learning Organization different than the traditional organization? System Thinking Personal Mastery Mental Models Shared Vision Team Learning Hagen, 2011

How important are these aspects to the learning organization?

How well has IMD embodied these in the past? How well do they embody them currently? How well will IMD embody these in the future?

What is the role of the leader in the Learning Organization? Roles of the leader in a Learning Organization: Leader as a Designer Leader as a Steward Leader as a Teacher Senge, 1990

How does IMD leadership reflects these three roles?

How can leaders build a Learning Organization? Provide on-the job training Provide opportunities for career progression Provide opportunities for experts to share knowledge Encourage formal learning opportunities Foster an environment that allows mistakes Bersin, 2012

What is the organization’s character? The Organizational Character Index: Extraversion vs. Introversion – “organization’s orientation, the location of its reality, and the source of its energy” Sensing vs. Intuition – “how [the organization] gathers informaiton, what it pays attention to, and how it perceives” Thinking vs. Feeling – organization’s “way of processing information, its manner of judging situations, and its way of making decisions” Judging vs. Perceiving – how the organization “ deal[s] with its external world through one of the Judging functions or through one of the perceiving functions” Bridges, 2000, p. 2-3

What is IMD’s character?

Does IMD’s character hinder it from being a Learning Organization?

How does the Learning Organization affect Knowledge Loss? Organizations lose more than just expertise when their employees leave Lose knowledge of organizational history and the relationships developed between individuals Parise, Cross, & Davenport, 2006

How is IMD affected by Knowledge Loss?

Conclusion

Resources Bersin, J. (2012, January). 5 Keys to building a learning organization. Retrieved from building-a-learning-organization/ Bridges, W. (2000). The character of organizations: Using personality type in organization development. Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing. Hagen, T. M. (2011, December). Is your agency a learning organization? Retrieved from learning-organization Parise, S., Cross, R., & Davenport, T. H. (Summer, 2006). Strategies for preventing a knowledge-loss crisis. MIT Sloan Management Review, 47(4), Senge, P. M. (1990). The leader’s new work: Building learning organizations. Sloan Management Review, 32(1), Smith, M. K. (2001). The learning organization: Principles, theory and practice. Retrieved from