the learning organization

The Learning Organization

Learning Organization

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 how to learn together.

The Need

World is more complex, dynamic, and globally competitive. Requires more understanding, knowledge, preparation, and agreement than one person's expertise and experience provides.

Five Disciplines

Systems thinking, Personal mastery, Mental models, Shared vision Team learning.

Goals

Understand the environment that calls for change Understand systems thinking Understand possible effect of learning organizations Understand systems archetypes

Discipline

What will fundamentally distinguish learning organizations from traditional controlling organizations will be the mastery of certain basic disciplines.

Systems Thinking

Based on system dynamicsHighly conceptualProvides ways to understand complexityLooks for repeating cycles (archetypes) Includes explicit system modeling

A Shift in How we Think

Interrelationships rather than linear cause-effect chains Processes rather than snapshots

Feedback

How actions can reinforce or counteract (balance) each other. Learning to recognize recurring patterns (archetypes)Developing a shared language for describing these patterns.

The Major ArchetypesBalancing Process with DelayLimits to GrowthShifting the BurdenEroding GoalsEscalationSuccess to the SuccessfulTragedy of the CommonsFixes that FailGrowth and Underinvestment

Problem Solving

Immediate consequences keep us from true seeing cause and effect. We need methods to increase understanding. Find point in the cycle where effort is most effective.

Personal Mastery

The discipline of . . .continually clarifying and deepening our personal visionfocusing our energiesdeveloping patienceseeing reality objectively

Dr. Greg WaddellProfessor of Leadership Studies &Course DesignerEmail: DrGregWaddell@gmail.com

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning OrganizationPeter Senge, 1994 - paperback edition. ISBN 0-385-26095-4

This presentation is based on the following resource: