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| Sunday, 11 April 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Creating a 'learning organisation' through people development by Jayantha Amarasinghe, Attorney-at-Law, Council Member - IPM The survival of organisations depend only on their ability to continuously improve the way they carry out their business activities. Any Improvement in the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of business operations requires the best resources in the right place, at the right time. Of all the resources available to an Organisation, Human Resource is the greatest asset. Every aspect of an organisation's activities is determined by the knowledge, skills, competence, motivation and general effectiveness of its human resource. These critical attributes of human resource can be developed and enhanced only through a process of continuous learning. Human and organisational salvation lies in learning, and continuous learning to master change, and to overcome any resistance to change. According to John Browne, Chairman of BP, 'Learning is at the heart of a company's ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. It is the key to being able to both identify opportunities that others might not see and to exploit those opportunities rapidly and fully'. All leading organisations in the world have recognised the value of continuous learning and of leveraging corporate know-how to increase organisational performance. Thus, facilitating organisational learning through the creation of a learning organisation culture in the organisation, are of paramount importance to its growth and survival. Organisational learning is a process, through which key elements of the experiences of individuals and teams are transmitted to the larger organisation, can be assessed by others and becomes part of the culture. It is facilitated through experimentation, communication of success and failure, learning from the external environment and learning from and through the collective wisdom, effective participation and total involvement of the employees. A Learning Organisation is one that is able to transform itself by acquiring new knowledge, skills or behaviour. According to John Redding, 'A learning organisation means taking action to build an organisation that can weather future storms. It is the antithesis of the boiling frog syndrome in which a company falls to see that the world has changed and, that if it doesn't adapt, it will die'. In successful learning organisations, learning is continuous, knowledge is shared and learning is supported by culture. Employees are encouraged to think critically, take risks with new ideas to innovate and be creative. Contributions of all employees are valued. How does an organisation come to know the knowledge it is required to acquire? This can be done by first developing models of excellence for various critical tasks' operations by keeping in view acknowledged international practices and critically evaluating its employees against these models. This would help the organisation to identify its potential and also the knowledge gaps that are required to be filled in order to achieve organisational excellence. Organisational commitment for learning and development is very much essential today to have continuous growth in the business. Corporate growth today, no longer means only financial bottom line though it is important. But the new dimensions are people development, cultural change, business process focus on knowledge management, re-positioning of business and customised service. In the new business environment, the need to bring in flexibility in the business process to respond to the changing needs of customer, can hardly be overemphasised. In this context, any organisation should lead the process of learning culture for continually re-skilling the employees with value addition to the organisation. Learning culture in an organisation is a management responsibility, encourages all employees, a mindset to learn and change faster than others. This could implement on strategies that are successful today, but may not be result-oriented tomorrow. Let every member in the organisation taste the advantages of learning environment to achieve the business goals. Values of learning organisation 1. Everyone can be a source of useful ideas; 2. The promotion of empowerment brings more people close to problems; 3. Learning flow up and down the hierarchy; 4. New ideas are important and should be encouraged and rewarded; and 5. Mistakes should be viewed as learning opportunities. Some common operational practices in learning organisations, particularly dealing with people are: Openness Managers must be receptive to new ideas and overcome the desire to closely control operations. Learning organisations break this mould and teach their people to look at things differently.People openly communicate with each other (across, vertical and horizontal levels) without fear of criticism. It is team learning through dialogue and discussion. It is fostering learning in other teams in the organisation to think indepth about complex issues. Developing systems thinking Systems thinking is the discipline of treating organisations, issues and problems as a whole. Another way to operationalise the learning process in the organisation is to develop system thinking among managers. This involves the ability to see connection between issues, events and data as a whole (interrelationships) rather than a series of unconnected parts. Teaching people to identify the sources of conflict they may have with other personnel, units and departments and to negotiate and make trade-offs skilfully. Use of Inter-functional teams on projects, thus, removing artificial barriers between functional areas and between line and staff. Development of creativity Another practice of learning organisation is to develop creativity among personnel. Creativity is the ability to formulate unique approaches to problem solving and decision-making. Learning organisations focus on getting employees to break their habits and think "outside the box". Proactive approach Another practice is proactive approach to problem solving by managements. They should solve the problems before critical situation develops. Instill a sense of empathy and sensitivity Another practice in learning organisation is to instill a sense of empathy and sensitivity towards others. People should sort out misunderstandings through discussion, mutual problem solving, maintaining confidence and trust in the other party. This encourages team work. Institutionalise learning Organisation to build not only individual knowledge, but also institutionalise knowledge and values, so that these are transferred when someone leaves the scene. The culture retains the knowledge and values. One way to launch learning organisation is to create teaching organisation where people teach, what they learn, to others. Leadership a) Leadership in the organisation to develop a culture of strategic thinking to completely overhaul the organisation. b) They should build shared vision for the organisation. A shared vision provides focus and energy for learning and bringing about change. They also define the core values around which an organisation will operate. Fostering positive mental mindset (mental models) Learning organisations foster the right mental model among employees for meeting all situations. Organisation has ability to challenge existing dogmas, values and practices, to learn or unlearn from business situation. Organisation has to learn for the future. Learning from mistakes Teams to review experience after completion of a project and self-reflection. They should have an honest assessment of success and failure experiences of the project. Risk taking Management to encourage employees to take risks in business operations which will increase opportunities. Managements to have quick response to make forces. Planned training and development facilitates organisational learning and helps in creating a learning organisation culture by providing a context for understanding the different demands of critical jobs/roles essential for achieving organisational excellence. It helps organisations in re-aligning the knowledge and skills of our employees as well as ways in which they carry out their businesses, to meet the strategic challenges of the future. |
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