Learning Organisation

five principles/disciplines of Senge’s learning organisation

• systems thinking

• personal mastery

• mental models

• building shared vision

• team learning

  

Systems thinking

• Systems thinking is the ability to see the big picture, to look beyond what is occurring just within a business.

• Senge states that businesses did not operate in isolation, nor do individuals within a business operate in isolation either.

• Business and managers must undergo a paradigm shift from being unconnected to interconnected as a whole.

• They must see changes as arising from patterns that are occurring not as an isolated event.

• Systems thinking allows a business to implement solutions that are more oriented towards the long-term view.

• How do they use this? To evaluate the business as a whole rather than separate units

• Systems thinking needs the other four disciples to enable a learning organisation to be realised.

Personal Mastery

 “Organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning. But without it no organizational learning occurs.“ (Senge)

• Individuals are committed to self-improvement and become life-long learners.

• Personal mastery involves the people within a business developing proficiency; that is, the ability to undertake continual learning or development to continually show improvement and movement towards achieving the goal or vision the person has set for themselves.

• Can be achieved through training and development, performance management and appraisal, as well as career progression.

• If individuals are able to continually improve the business will also improve.

• As people in the business learn, they will be less resistant to change and may in fact drive change as they feel it will allow them to get closer to the vision they have for themselves.

• This will assist the business to change if the vision of the individual aligns with the vision of the business.

Mental Models

 “Mental models are ‘deeply ingrained assumptions, generalisations or even pictures and images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action” (Senge)

• To allow the business and individuals to change, the discipline of mental models requires businesses (and individuals) to look inside themselves.

• Businesses need to be able to scrutinise what they do, their systems and processes and then act upon what they learn. 

• For this to occur, it will be necessary for people to learn new skills and develop new orientations, and for there to be institutional changes that foster such change.

• A business with a more open culture will encourage and promote inquiry and trust, which is likely to support the successful implementation of change.

Building Shared Vision

 “Shared vision ‘is the capacity to hold a shared picture of the future we seek to create” (Senge)

• Having a shared vision will motivate all members of the business. It will encourage risk taking, and experimentation and foster innovation. People who work within the business, who adopt this shared vision, will see the long-term picture of the business and so a commitment to the business and to learning will further develop.

• The shared vision is different to the vision statement of a business.

• The shared vision, if genuine, will see people excel and learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to.

• A shared vision means change will be more successful.

• Leaders who seek to build a shared vision require a set of guiding principles and practices that will move their vision from a personal vision to a shared vision.

• Senge also states that where a shared vision will foster genuine commitment and enrolment rather than compliance, leaders must recognise that attempting to dictate the vision may be counter-productive.

• People must come to this shared vision themselves, through learning, through a desire to extend themselves and through being innovative.

• The opportunity to talk, share and communicate in a clear and honest manner will reinforce the vision among believers and spread the vision further.

Team Learning

 “Team learning is the process of aligning and developing the capacities of a team to create the results its members truly desire.” (Senge)

• This concept builds on the disciplines of personal mastery and shared vision;

• People need to act together. When teams learn together, then the business will achieve improved results, but importantly, members will grow more rapidly that could have occurred otherwise.

• Team learning starts with dialogue - the concept of communicating openly, through the capacity of members of a team to suspend assumptions and enter into a genuine ‘thinking together’.

• If teams within a business are able to have dialogue together, free from bias and pre-conceptions, then greater learning will occur and the business will achieve better results. This will further enhance learning and assist the business in becoming a learning organisation.

• Open communication, shared meaning and shared understanding are also much more likely to lead to support for change.

Advantages/Disadvantages of Learning Organisation

Advantages	Disadvantages
•Boosts level of creativity, thinking, innovation and business competitiveness •Continuously striving to improve •Adaptable, flexible, the business responds quicker to issues/change in the future •Staff motivation should increase, boots skills and empowerment •Improving quality or outputs at all levels •Improving corporate image by becoming more people-oriented	•Requires cultural change which can take time •Large businesses can struggle to share ideas and knowledge between all members