1. Learning Organizations and You
Colleen Wheeler, Wheaton
D. Grainger Wedaman, Brandeis
Required – Title Slide
October 2, 2012

2. outline
Gap Quiz Experiment The Idea Characteristics and Tensions Learning Organization Academy
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3. the gap
An experimental quiz
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4. quiz Think about a time in your life when you learned best.
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5. quiz Name it in three words: “chess with uncle.”
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6. quiz Pick one word to describe how it felt.
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7. quiz Compare your feeling to your workplace experience.
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8. results
Safety, trust, risk tolerance, small group, feedback, reflective, intellectually challenging, motivating, sense of growth, humor, passion, insight, fun Similarity to work? Uh – oh!
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9. the idea
of the Learning Organization
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10. “We must become able not only to transform our institutions, in response to changing situations and requirements; we must invent and develop institutions which are ‘learning systems’, that is to say, systems capable of bringing about their own continuing transformation.” Donald Schön, Beyond the Stable State
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11. idea
Learning Organization: A collective enterprise in which continual learning is the organizational principle.

12. rather than
Other organizing principles! Alternating states of change and stability.

13. history
Robert Hutchins, The Learning Society, 1968 Donald Schon, Beyond the Stable State, 1973 Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline, 1990 Edgar Schein, Organization Culture & Leadership, 2010
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14. characteristics
and
tensions
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15. problem Learning is in many ways contradictory to workplace norms.
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16. balance
You need consistent activities for identity and coherence. Learning disrupts consistence. Learning Orgs balance these.
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17. anxiety
Learning new ways to work causes anxiety. Learning Orgs are open about this and help manage it.
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18. competence
A primal fear in the workplace: been seen as a failure or incompetent. Learning requires incompetence.
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19. talk
To learn, people need “psychologically safe” places, to be able to say what they think, to discuss, to disagree. Learning Orgs create these.
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20. motivation
You learn best when “instrinsically” motivated. The workplace uses extrinsic motivation. Learning Organizations find ways to let people explore the things they care about.
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21. passion
People learning well together experience happiness – joy – passion. Reluctantly allowed by the workplace. Learning Orgs encourage and appreciate passion.
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22. play
Play, experimentation, construction combine learning, discovery, and fun. They don’t happen much. Learning Orgs provide “Duckworth” environments.
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23. mindfulness
Paying attention to yourself, your feelings, your triggers, your hopes, is crucial to learning. Workplaces don’t reinforce self-awareness. Learning Orgs promote mindfulness.

24. reflection
Feedback and reflection are necessary for learning. Most workplaces avoid these activities. Learning Orgs promote both.

25. ideas
Continual change requires a flow of generative ideas. Workplaces don’t have ways to create and manage an idea flow. Learning Orgs are gardeners of ideas.

26. sum
No perfect example We all know of moments Learning Organization is a goal

27. LOA
Learning Organization Academy

28. history
Infamous 2010 Focus Group LOA Formed 2012 First cohort in session

29. model
Summer immersion in learning, mindfulness, joy Year-long inquiry projects Quarterly town meetings
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30. examples
Building a DH community of practice Implementing “exploration time” Creating on-boarding program Visual thinking in portfolio project management
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31. examples
Revamping customer relations Finding ways to encourage creativity in the workplace Developing “learning” consultant team
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32. Learning Organizations and You
Colleen Wheeler, Wheaton
D. Grainger Wedaman, Brandeis
Required – End Slide