Special Topics

Dania Al.Falah
Dr. Ala’Aldin AlRowwad

University Of
Jordan/Aqaba
 Building a learning organization

Chapter 11
Building a Learning Organization
Building a learning organization
 Chapter Outline
1- Identify the learning organization.
2- The environment of learning organization.
3- Pillars of a learning organization.
4- Learning organization related with multiple concepts
 Identify the learning organization
In business management, a learning organization is a company that facilitates the learning of its
members and continuously transforms itself. The concept was coined through the work and
research of Peter Senge and his colleagues.

Learning organizations may develop as a result of the pressures facing modern organizations; this
enables them to remain competitive in the business environment.
 Introduction
In a Word Learning is the key to success—some would even say survival—in today’s
organizations. Knowledge should be continuously enriched through both internal and external
learning. For this to happen, it is necessary to support and energize organization, people,
knowledge, and technology for learning.
 Introduction
For organizations wishing to remain relevant and thrive, learning better and faster is critically
important. Many organizations apply quick and easy fixes often driven by technology. Most are
futile attempts to create organizational change. However, organizational learning is neither
possible nor sustainable without understanding what drives it. The below figure shows the
subsystems of a learning organization: organization, people, knowledge, and technology. Each
subsystem supports the others in magnifying the learning as it permeates across the system.
Building a Learning Organization
organization .1
 organization .1
The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.

—Arnold Toynbee
 Organization (cont)
A learning organization values the role that learning can play in the development of
organizational effectiveness. It demonstrates this by having an inspiring vision for learning and
a learning strategy that will support the organization in achieving its vision.
The leadership of a learning organization is committed to the importance of learning and
clearly communicates that learning is critical to organizational success. The leadership
recognizes the importance of providing the motive, means, and opportunity for learning:
(1) the motive being the “why?”—the purpose and reason for learning;
(2) the means being the “how and what?”—the models, methods, and competencies required;
and
(3) the opportunity being the “where and when?”—the spaces for learning. Leaders take an
exemplary leading role in creating and sustaining a supportive learning culture.
 Organization (cont)
The structure of a learning organization takes into account the common obstacles to learning so it is
carefully aligned with strategy, avoiding the development of “silos” and minimizing unnecessary levels
of hierarchy. Communication systems are used to facilitate the lateral transfer of information and
knowledge across formal structural boundaries. In decentralized and geographically spread
organizations, particular care is taken to use communication to encourage lateral communication and
to overcome the increased danger of the development of “silos”.
Adequate resources are allocated for learning in terms of time, space, specialist support staff, and
budgets for knowledge management and learning infrastructure, formal and informal communities of
practice1 and other value networks (both internal and external),2 and learning and development
programs. Support to communities of practice, for example, is extended in a structured manner
throughout their life cycle.
 Organization (cont)
To stimulate creativity and generate new insights and innovative practices, a learning organization
takes a balanced approach to the importance of both planned and emergent learning. Planned learning
is addressed through the careful development of strategy, structure, systems, procedures, and plans. In
a learning organization, planning is based on careful reflection through probing questions that draw on
data and information from monitoring, review, and self- and independent evaluation.
Emergent learning is equally important but takes an inherently more speculative and opportunistic
approach. It is dependent on encouraging a passion for learning and knowledge sharing among staff
members, developing learning competencies, creating opportunities for informal sharing, and
cultivating a supportive learning culture.
 Discussion

How organization effect on learning organization ?

people .2
 people .2
I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.

—Albert Einstein
 People (cont) .2
A learning organization needs people who are intellectually curious about their work, who actively
reflect on their experience, who develop experience-based theories of change and continuously test
these in practice with colleagues, and who use their understanding and initiative to contribute to
knowledge development. In short, it needs people who are reflective practitioners. Reflective
practitioners understand their strengths and limitations and have a range of tools, methods, and
approaches for knowledge management and learning, individually and in collaboration with others.
 People (cont) .2
Reflective practice flourishes when people experience a high level of psychological safety and trust,
and it is undermined when people feel exposed to unfair negative criticism and when they believe that
they cannot rely on colleagues. Teamwork is, therefore, a vital ingredient of a genuine learning
organization. Indeed, one characteristic of teams in learning organizations is that they operate as
learning communities in which sensitively expressed dissent, conflict, and debate are encouraged as
positive sources of learning. Developing the safety and trust upon which reflective practice and
positive teamwork depend requires careful attention to relationship building and the management of
individual and collective performance.
 People (cont) .2
To grow and protect the investment made in staff members, a learning organization pays careful
attention to developing and retaining its people. Closely linked to development and retention of
staff members are the importance of recognition and incentives for learning. Learning
organizations ensure that time and effort spent on effective knowledge management and learning
are recognized as core activities in the organization’s time and performance management
systems. Rewards for contributing to learning and knowledge development can be more
conventional (e.g., career advancement, increased income, and greater formal status) or may be
less conventional (e.g., informal peer status, time made available for study, or public
acknowledgement for an innovative contribution made).
 People (cont) .2
Learning organizations also provide a wide range of opportunities for individual and collective
learning and development. Learning and development programs are available to ensure that individuals
and teams develop the competencies of reflective practice and collaborative learning. While learning
and development systems may focus on more formal programs, a learning organization is one where
the maximum benefit is also leveraged from other learning opportunities such as day-to-day work
experiences, team meetings, short-term secondments, and membership of task groups.
 People (cont) .2
In a learning organization, an important source of individual learning and development is coaching and
mentoring support from managers, specialists, and other experienced colleagues. High quality
coaching and mentoring can help reflective practice flourish. However, both involve skills that cannot
be taken for granted and must be consciously developed in the organization. It cannot be assumed that
good contract managers and technical specialists automatically make good coaches and mentors.

Learning organizations require and encourage the development of leadership competencies at all levels
in the organizational hierarchy, not just at the top. Leadership is viewed as a valuable skill that is based
on the possession of expertise and knowledge, not simply positional status.
 Discussion

How people effect on learning organization ?

Knowledge .3
 Knowledge .3
Knowledge is the true organ of sight, not the eyes.

—The Panchatantra
 Knowledge (cont) .3
Knowledge is a critical asset in every learning organization. Because learning is both a product of
knowledge and its source, a learning organization recognizes that the two are inextricably linked and
manages them accordingly.

The units of knowledge production are both the individual and the collective. Learning
organizations understand that while knowledge is created in the minds of individuals, knowledge
development thrives in a rich web of social contact among individuals, groups, and organizations. A
learning organization provides creative opportunities for this knowledge to be developed and shared
with others through interpersonal contact and access to documentation.
An organization’s main repositories of knowledge are the design and delivery of its products and
services and the strategies, systems, and procedures it has developed to guide its decision-making.
Learning organizations know how best to take a learning approach to the development of this embedded
knowledge by putting in place the necessary systems and infrastructure for knowledge management.
 Knowledge (cont) .3
Feedback is the dynamic process of presenting and disseminating information to improve
performance. Feedback mechanisms are increasingly being recognized as key elements of learning.
Key (and often underutilized) sources of knowledge in organizations are the data and information that
emerge from monitoring systems and the analyses, conclusions, and recommendations that arise from
self- and independent evaluations. Learning organizations have sophisticated ways of designing
evaluations with learning (as well as accountability) in mind. Methods such as after-action reviews and
retrospects4 are successfully adopted and generate lessons that are carefully targeted at specific
audiences. Learning organizations have systems that ensure that the outputs of self- and independent
evaluations are made widely available, used to question orthodox thinking, and trigger creativity and
innovation. Most significant changes are collected, systematically selected, and interpreted.5 Peer
assists,6 drawing on individuals’ expertise and documented lessons learned, are used in planning new
initiatives to reduce the likelihood of repeated unintended negative outcomes. Action learning is used
to tackle more intractable challenges.
 Knowledge (cont) .3
A learning organization recognizes the importance of a resilient organizational memory. Learning
organizations ensure that individuals and teams are encouraged to use a range of ways of surfacing their
tacit knowledge and making it available to others through carefully targeted documentation and
collaborative working practices. Recognizing that organizations change in the direction in which they
inquire, they leverage the powers of appreciative inquiry.8 Documentation is made accessible to others in
the organization with a range of user-friendly information and communications technology.

Learning organizations are networked with the wider world. They know how to create and run
partnerships.9 Collaborative mutual learning arrangements with other organizations are common and
fruitful.
 Discussion

How Knowledge effect on learning organization ?

Technology .4
 Technology .4
This is perhaps the most beautiful time in human history; it is really pregnant with all kinds of creative
possibilities made possible by science and technology which now constitute the slave of man—if man is not
enslaved by it.

—Jonas Salk
 Technology (cont) .4
Learning organizations know how to harness the power of information and communications
technology—without the technology constraining knowledge management and learning. In a learning
organization, information and communications technology is used, among other purposes, to
strengthen organizational identity; build and sustain learning communities; keep staff members,
clients, and others informed and aware of corporate developments; create unexpected, helpful
connections between people and provide access to their knowledge and ideas; encourage innovation
and creativity; share and learn from good practices and unintended outcomes; strengthen
relationships; develop and access organizational memory; share tools, methods, and approaches;
celebrate successes; identify internal sources of expertise; and connect with the outside world.
 Technology (cont) .4
The creative use of information and communications technology such as shared document drives,
intranet pages, online communities and networks, wikis and other collaborative work spaces, blogging
and online storytelling, staff profile pages, online webinars, podcasts, and social network analysis
indicates that an organization takes learning seriously.
 Technology (cont) .4
Finally, In a learning organization, sufficient opportunities are provided for staff members to learn how to
make use of available information and communications technology for knowledge management and
learning.
 Discussion

How Technology effect on learning organization ?

 Five main components
There are five main components of an organization that learns:
1) Systems Thinking
2) Personal Mastery
3) Team Learning
4) Mental Models
5) Building Shared Vision.
 Discussion
Can the idea of a learning organization be applied?
There are many people in management, and this app is conflict to applicate it, as well as many, as well
as some, that is to say it by its status, this is the same app. Educational institutions, luck fortunately
there is a model of the educated organization, no matter how large our organizations found the
determination and sound understanding of the idea.
 ?How can the idea of a learning organization be app
How can the idea of a learning organization be applied?
1. Application of the principle of knowledge transfer.
2. Finding a knowledge bank in the organization.
3. Specialty Reading Groups.
4. Allowing irregular groups to discuss and exchange ideas.
5. Analysis and documentation of experiences and expertise.
6. Temporary Job Rotation Experience.
7. On-the-job training.
 How can the idea of a learning organization be
?applied
1. Application of the principle of knowledge transfer:
It is based on organizing the process of exchanging knowledge between the members of the
organization. Every individual who attended a course or participated in a conference or a training
workshop is obligated to transfer what he learned to the members of his organization. It may also
include the process of transfer of knowledge to benefit from the experienced members of the
organization. This idea clearly bears fruit if it is placed within the development activities and plans of
the organization, and the periodic and fixed time has been determined for it, which cannot be deducted
in favor of another activity except in cases of extreme necessity.
 How can the idea of a learning organization be
?applied
2. Finding a knowledge bank in the organization :
It is an electronic database that can be programmed specifically for the organization, or take advantage
of the systems offered by some software companies at specific prices, or groups of social networking
programs can be adapted for this purpose at the very least (the easy-going does not fall into the poor),
and the organization’s members through that platform exchange knowledge In order for this idea to be
successful, there must be a mechanism in that platform to save discussions and books; The
organization’s members must be made aware of the importance of this platform, so that everyone
interacts with its activities and masters its use, and that its discussions are programmed and planned
within the plans of human resources management. And if you watched the Dubai Roads and Transport
Authority experience in the next video, you will understand a lot about this idea. More about this
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 How can the idea of a learning organization be
?applied
3. Specialty Reading Groups:
They are groups within the framework of the organization, aiming to strengthen the relationship of the
organization’s members with knowledge and writers and to inform employees of everything new in
their field of work, and this idea requires that:
• The most recent books to read are selected.
• It is not required to read long chapters for hours at the expense of working hours; Rather, it is
sufficient to specify (20-30 minutes per week or daily) to allocate five minutes for reading and the
rest of the time to discuss practical ideas of what has been read.
 How can the idea of a learning organization be
?applied
4. Allowing irregular groups to discuss and exchange ideas
Senge called them learning teams, and stated that the dialogue that takes place within these teams
represents one of the strongest forms of transferring expertise and experiences between the members of
the organization, which are groups that take place during breakfast sessions, tea at work or recreational
activities that the organization holds for its members.
 How can the idea of a learning organization be
?applied
5. Analysis and documentation of experiences and expertise:
How many times has your organization tried a new project or product, whether it failed or
achieved great success? You need to study and analyze that experience with your team and
derive the benefits and lessons from it, then document that experience, save it and archive it.
This also includes decisions and participation in external events on behalf of the organization
and experiences exchange meetings with similar bodies..etc. In order for this experiment to be
successful, it must:
A. Training individuals to analyze situations and write reports to document those experiences
accurately.
B. Assigning an administrative unit to follow up individuals in documentation and to overcome
any difficulties they face in doing so.This item is found within some of the advanced technical
systems for knowledge management.
 How can the idea of a learning organization be
?applied
6. Temporary Job Rotation Experience:
It is the process of changing the location and job description of each individual in the
organization, so that he exercises the tasks of his colleague, and the benefits of this idea are very
great, in addition to giving individuals the opportunity to experience new, and gain different
knowledge and skills, it also opens the way for the organization to explore the energies and
talents of individuals. The idea can be applied to one department, department or several
departments, depending on the size of the organization and its work system. Among the factors
for the success of this experiment: the existence of an initial discussion session between the
original and new incumbent; Before performing the rotation and another session at the end of
the experiment, in which each person presents their written experience for documentation.
 How can the idea of a learning organization be
?applied
:On-the-job training .7
Most organizations are accustomed to the usual training in the training halls, while research proves that
on-the-job training has a stronger impact and returns, if it is done in correct ways, and is organized in a
chronic practical framework. of monopolizing positions. These are seven practical ideas on the path to
moving towards a learning organization, I believe they are within the reach of any organization,
.regardless of its size and financial capabilities
Example Of Toyota Company
 Example Of Toyota Company (cont)
1) As you can see, it moves from identifying the problem in which the service department isn't meeting
revenue targets to asking the question of why money is being lost. As you can see, this question is
answered relatively easily with the realization that the customer volume isn't high enough. This leads
to the next question: Why don't we have enough customers? This question is answered by a survey that
shows that car returns take too long. So then the question naturally becomes this: Why does it take so
long to return the customers their cars? This is easily answered by looking at other shops who get their
parts ordered faster. So finally, the question should be: Why does it take us longer to us to get our
parts? Which can, in turn, be easily answered by discovering that the company's parts department
doesn't stock as many parts as the rival companies do. Therefore, that's right - more parts need to be
stocked. Easy!
 Example Of Toyota Company (cont)
2. Individual Learning at Toyota :
At Toyota, hansei is applied to individual learning exactly the same way that it is applied to the
organizational learning model. As part of Toyota's shift toward being a learning organization, the
company encourages employees to be fearlessly reflective and transparent with their findings. This is
simply a ''learn from your mistakes and successes'' approach in which Toyota provides its employees
with a no-blame zone where transparent self-reflection is encouraged without the fear of being
adversely impacted by admitting to poor decisions or bad outcomes. This blame-free atmosphere was
an important part of Toyota's shift toward becoming a learning organization.
 Example Of Toyota Company (cont)
3. Team Learning at Toyota
Synergy is a term used to describe what happens when the sum of combined efforts are greater than the
individual components simply added together. You could visualize synergy by thinking about an
airplane. All airplanes have wings. They also have an engine and landing gear. But simply putting a
pair of wings, an engine, and some landing gear on the runway won't accomplish much. To get from
Los Angeles to New York, an airplane needs these pieces assembled together. When that happens, there
is a synergistic transformation. The aircraft, now capable of flying across the country, is far more
valuable than each of its components.
This is part of the reason that Toyota's learning organization emphasizes the importance of making sure
that individual learning gets pooled rather than held in isolation. Team learning could be described as
the result of aggregated individual learning. When teams at Toyota are functioning at optimal capacity,
the different components of the manufacturing process are all sharing their learning with each other so
that the company can support its overall goals.