Learning organization

Peter Senge and the Learning Organization

In his book "", Peter Senge defines a learning organization as the big one that can create the results it truly desires.

According to Senge:

Real learning gets to the heart of what it means to be human. Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do. Through learning we repercieve the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life. There is within each of us a deep hunger for this type of learning.

The reality each of us sees and understands depend on what we believe there is. By learning the principles of the five disciplines, teams begin to understand how they can "think and inquire" their realities, in a way that enhances "collaboration in discussions and in working together" towards creating the results that matter (to "all" them).

In the Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge describes learning organizations as places "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 (reality) together". They do so by:

* Seeing, learning and practicing to work with interrelations (circles of causality or "feedback") as well as processes of change (or the time (delays) it takes for change to happen). The extent to which we see and work with these feedbacks and delays hinges on the frames or lenses we are using to help us make sense of our realities. Are we learning to see (practice) the "whole story" or a part of it (linear cause-effect)? The extent to which we see our frames determines the extent to which we understand our realities.

* Sharing a set of tools / methodologies and theories: A learning organization creates a common and agreed upon understanding of terms, concepts, categories and keywords that apply within that organization that facilitates this work. See: http://www.lopn.net/60_Tools.html.

* Building Guiding Ideas: Leaders and members in a Learning Organization, see primacy of the whole (understand complexities), the generative power of language (generative conversations by recognizing one's frames that get in the way of seeing another's frames) and the community nature of self (seeing oneself and the connectedness to the whole and the world). The true learning organization is redesigning itself constantly or not merely led by the leader (and his frame). A leader in the organization instead supports this redesigning by acting as a steward (stewarding persons' visions), teacher and designer (bringing different views together for all of us to see the extent of the system (or ship)as compared to the merely being the captain of the ship). See article below on "The Leaders' New Work"

ee also

* Knowledge management
* Knowledge organization
* Organization story
* Organizational learning
* Organizational storytelling
* Social engineering

Notes

References

* "The Fifth Discipline", by Peter Senge, Doubleday, 2006 [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385517254/]

* "Learning Organizations", eds. Sarita Chawla and John Renesch, Productivity Press, 1995 [http://www.amazon.com/dp/1563273403/]

* Citation
last = Simonin
first = Bernard
title = The Importance of Collaborative Know-How: An Empirical Test of the Learning Organization
journal = The Academy of Management Journal
volume = 40
issue = 5
pages = 1150-1174
date = Oct, 1997
year = 1997

External links

* [http://www.solonline.org Society for Organizational Learning]
** [http://www.solonline.org/aboutsol/who/Senge/ About Peter Senge]
** [http://www.solonline.org/organizational_overview/milestones/ Organizational Learning milestones]
** [http://www.solonline.org/organizational_overview/ The core of Learning Organization]
** [http://www.solonline.org/organizational_overview/lexicon/ The language of Learning Organization]
** [http://www.solonline.org/PublicationsAndResources/RecommendedReading/ Recommended Reading]
* [http://www.lopn.net Learning Organization Practitioners' Network] (LOPN/Singapore)
* [http://construction.colorado.edu/leonardo Learning Organization Rapid Diagnostic] , LEONARDO Tool, University of Colorado