Welcome back! It has been a long and challenging couple of weeks in the real world! This week's topic is about the "Learning Organization" paradigm, as defined by Peter Senge in his book, The Fifth Discipline. He provides a framework for effectively creating an environment of continuous learning and improvement throughout the organization.
One of the first activities is the development of a shared vision which leads to a number of future benefits and development steps. A shared vision permits the pursuit of personal mastery whereby people are inevitably drawn back to reconsider what they want for themselves and what they feel called to do.
Team learning is another natural step from the shared vision effort. Collective aspiration gives team members a compelling reason to being to learn how to learn together. Furthermore, systems thinking is an essential tool for making any shared vision a reality.
People must recognize the need for strategies for pursuing the vision so that two independent departments do not nullify their respective efforts. A shared vision creates an equally strong need for working with the relevant mental models, particularly those models that people have for their future and what is possible for them.
Hey Suite101 - Let's Try This!
Senge and his team have identified several core processes which are fundamental to creating and sustaining organizations as communities - perhaps not unlike Suite 101. They involve processes for enhancing capability, commitment, contribution, continuity, collaboration and conscience.
Capability: Vital communities are capable: they have the skills, knowledge, and personal qualities to renew themselves and reinvent their future. They do this by encouraging learning and improvement among their citizens as a collective undertaking.
Commitment: This builds when people are an active part of the experience of creating something they value together. Using common language, symbols, and metaphors which evoke positive emotion also help bring people together. It calls forth an intuitive image of mutual commitment and contribution.
Contribution: Essentially, people want to give, especially if it's to something they think is needed and worthwhile. That's why it's important to develop ways for people to see clearly how their daily work makes a real contribution to the organization's success.
Continuity: If we want to gain the benefits of healthy communities in the workplace, we need to become more creative about how to build some sources of continuity. Otherwise, the knowledge of mature citizens literally gets lost in the constant "churn" of career moves.
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