Learning Organization

“Without learning, the wise become foolish; by learning, the

foolish become wise."

Presented by : Anuj Kumar Agrawal

Amandeep Singh Bali

Rishit Patel

Aviroop Singh Sethi

Overview

• Brief Introduction• Background• Why a Learning Organization ?• Creating a Learning Organization• Why Learning Organizations work ?• Risk Analysis• The Future• Summary

Learning Organization

What it is ?• It is an organization that learns and encourages learning

among its people.What does it do ?• It promotes exchange of information between employees

hence creating a more knowledgeable workforce. What happens?• This produces a very flexible organization where people

will accept and adapt to new ideas and changes through a shared vision.

Background:• Drivers for the recent emphasis on

organization learning: Increased Pace of change

• Earlier companies were conservative: “Companies concentrated on there own need and not on the needs of workers”

• In 1950’s the concept of SYSTEM THINKING was introduced.– It tries to include the ambitions of individual

workers, not just the business goals.

Why a learning Organization ?

• It is easy to recognize a company that performs badly

• Some sign are as follows:

no motivation and no interest among employees and there work

workforce lack skills and knowledge to adjust to new jobs

workforce simply follows orders

lack of communication

rise of customer complaints

the same problems occur over and over

The answer to this can be “Learning Organization”

Creating Learning Organization

• Building Blocks• Implementation strategies• The Golden Rules• People Behavior

Building Blocks:

Awareness – The companies should be aware that learning is necessary.

Environment – The company should encourage openness, accept error and uncertainty.

Leadership – Management must provide long term learning commitment in the form of resources ( money, personnel and time)

Building Blocks:

Empowerment – The control should shift from managers to workers, thus workers become responsible for there actions.

Learning – Management need to find out what failure is like so that they can learn from the mistakes in the future, they should also encourage workers to follow their example.

Implementation Strategies

• Accidental: This approach is not initiated through awareness of the learning organization concept.

• Subversive: This approach is initiated through the awareness of learning organization concept. It is secretive.

• Declared: The principles are adopted as a part of company ethos.

Golden Rule

• Thrive on change:– Don’t be scared, feed on change

• Encourage Experimentation• Communicate success and Failure• Facilitate Learning from Employees• Reward Learning• Sense of Caring

People Behavior

• Team Learning• Shared Vision• Mental Models• Personal Mastery• System Thinking

– Ability to see the bigger picture.

Why learning organizations work?

• The people Develop:• Greater Motivation• The workforce is more flexible• People are more creative• Improved social interaction

• Teams and Groups work better• Knowledge sharing• Interdependency

Why learning Organizations work ?

• The Company benefits:• Breakdown of traditional boundaries• Customer Relation’s• Innovation And Creativity.

Risk Analysis

• Risks in Implementing changes:• The change must be drastic and not slow• Employees resistance to change• Too much freedom can create misunderstandings

• Risks in not implementing changes:• Overtaken by competitors• Become inefficient• Fail to embrace new ideas and increase productivity.

The Future

• Investment in learning: More emphasis on learning will lead to more investment in activities like training.

• Technology: It will become more cross-functional and transparent.

• Knowledge: Knowledge would be key for organizations and not just physical assets.

• Unemployment?- Increased used of technology and increase efficiency of individuals could lead to unemployment.

• Customer-Client relationship- Higher degree of co-operation between customers and clients.

SUMMARY

• The perfect learning organization is not an attainable goal, it is merely a desirable concept

• There is no correct implementation of the Learning Organization. Every company can continuously adapt and adjust and some will be better learning organizations than others.

• Finally, its just a means to a business goal, created to improve productivity and most importantly profit.