Introduction.
Learning is the only pathway to change. Without learning, organizational positions become outdated by changing global conditions. Without change, the community begins to decay and crumbles at the slightest change of events. However, if not managed appropriately, learning can become self-harming, and unable to meet the ever-moving target that is public value.
I. What Typifies a Learning Organization?
A. Thrives on feedback.
The learning organization prides itself in introspection and invites external evaluation. Internal assessments are immediate; however, they can be wrong. An external, unbiased set of eyes provides the balance that validates self-reported efficacy. This prevents “habit meshing”, a condition that according to Pressman and Wildavsky, when employees believe that they are doing a public good when in reality they are not.
Feedback from within exercises the employee’s ability to conduct a self-assessment which builds confidence in one’s abilities. Feedback from without creates an environment of transparency which compounds the organization’s public value.
B. Rewards innovation.
Innovation is the only way to outpace decay in an organization. New ideas set the platform for self-scrutiny, creative pioneering, and reimagines co-production. A learning organization motivates its members to analyze gaps and provide solutions. It listens intently to its clients and celebrates community-driven ideas. The forward leaning innovation views novel suggestions as the “field intelligence” that allows it to leapfrog beyond the expectations of its authorizing environment.
C. Learns to learn some more.
Alearning organization despises repeated errors, or what Pressman and Wildavsky call “Learning-zero” or “non-learning.” Non-learning squanders resources and leads to more costly mistakes. “Simple learning” that takes experience and keeps it in “memory” is just a step above non-learning. Etheredge cautions that “organizational memories” can codify experience and learning. If the memories are not analyzed, dissected, and re-sequenced according to context, the organization has the potential to develop policies based on unfounded fear. The result is that the organization becomes risk averse based on incomplete hypotheses.
The true learning organization conducts “deutero-learning” or “learning to receive signals” where only data that “speeds the process of change” is utilized to improve processes. The organization becomes a unit where “continuous self-analysis” is the norm, where errors are not only repeated, but discovered early (during policy formation) before it wastes resources during implementation.
In the perpetual learning environment, errors surface on their own without much coaxing. The result is an even quicker change to resource allocation, with an immediate change in evaluation metrics, and comprehensive re-evaluation of outcomes.
D. Cherishes impermanence.
Individual and organizational agility is achieved when members lean on refined knowledge from learning and re-learning. If an organization values rigid structure and hierarchy, processes become more cumbersome, and learning for the sake of learning is discarded. Here are five ways to remain agile.
II. How is Perpetual Learning Implemented?
A. Records and Codifies.
Alearning organization that documents lessons in a systematic and holistic manner can quickly identify issues, in a constructive way (non-attribution) discuss pertinent elements and put forth agreed-upon recommendations.
The documentation provides a roadmap from which to start revisions and adaptations. If many adaptations are required, the roadmap allows authorized changes to implementation at key points, without going back to the starting point.
The learning organization cements the lessons learned through formal after-action reviews where all stakeholders are able to internalize key points in order to modify their work to accomplish group outcomes.
B. Frequent and Transparent Communications.
Frequent interaction is fundamental in adaptation. The larger the project, and when close to the deadline. interaction is key to maintain alignment with the directives. The longer the project has been implemented, the more crucial it becomes to communicate frequently and with transparency. If all stakeholders are unable to attend, emails and memorandums should be disseminated to keep all parties apprised of developments.
III. How Does a Learning Organization Grade Itself?
An ideal learning organization conducts its own self-assessment without prodding from its overseers and co-producers. The frequent “self-doubt” drives it to analyze the strength and viability of its resources based on the fluid environment. Additionally, a learning organization invites external agencies to scrutinize its processes. The external evaluation ensures that the organization is not blinded by its own biases. The resulting feedback is then fed into its learning processes and recodified to meet any change in expected outcomes.
The combination of internally driven inspection and externally required assessments helps the learning organization maintain learning momentum, agility during adaptation, and thoroughness during implementation.
IV. Conclusion
Learning is key to growing. Organizations who value their leading positions learn, unlearn, and learn some more.
Copyright Leonard Casiple 2023. All rights reserved.
About the author: Leo Casiple is a first-generation American who grew up in Southern Philippines under martial law. He spent much of his 21-year career in the US Army as a Green Beret.
Leo is currently a doctoral student at Northeastern University’s Doctor of Law and Policy program (2022–2025 Cohort). He earned his education from California Lutheran University (MPPA), ASU Thunderbird School of Global Management (MBA in Global Management), Excelsior University (BS in Liberal Arts, Ethnic and Area Studies), Academy of Competitive Intelligence (Master of Competitive Intelligence™), Defense Language Institute and Foreign Language Center (18-month Arabic Language Course), and the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (Special Forces Qualification Course and Psychological Operations Specialist Course).
For more information about the author, click here: Leo’s LinkedIn Profile
References
Ferose, V. R. (2020, March 20). 5 Ways To Design Our Lives For Impermanence. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2020/03/20/5-ways-to-design-our-lives-for-impermanence/?sh=14854a954b2e
Pressman, J. L., & Wildavsky, A. (1984). Implementation: How great expectations in Washington are dashed in Oakland; Or, why it’s amazing that federal programs work at all, this being a saga of the economic development administration as told by two sympathetic observers who seek to build morals on a foundation (3rd ed.). University of California Press.