by
Sam Lund , Management consultant , Stella Polaris
Today, in this globally competed world, any organisation faces the pressure of improving and re-shaping itself in terms of capabilities and performance. A learning organisation has an inherent capability to adopt and adapt new capabilities. Getting the "performance" out of it, requires an equally adaptive management.
The first question is "why would an organisation need to learn", and the next question is "for what good/benefit would it learn"... and finally "what should an organisation need to learn, in order to achieve and create that benefit".
"Learning" is a capability implying ability to monitor and improve existing behavioral patterns, and to identify and adopt new patterns, both aiming for achieving set of goals and criteria of achievement.
"Learning" is a process which - as a pre-requisite - considers evolution of the organisation, that including not only the information content, but also the processes, working methods and their management and management methods - and ultimately the shape of the organisation itself.
Learning might happen on different levels and in different contexts, but would always lead into a new state - a change. This means evolution, change - and would require control and management of the direction for it. Aimless, hap-hazard, random acts of inspiration may increase the overall body of information, but would rarely create increased value, or return to those investments put into the acquisition of the information and capabilities. Hence, direction, goals and achievement criteria are an equally important aspects for enabling and supporting a functional learning organisation. It is the actual "learning" in the "learning" - adopting and assimilating the new.
So, is this a management fad, or management fact?
Answers to that question depend on, what is the purpose of the organisation, what is its operational environment, and how it is exposed to it.
For some businesses, a learning organisation is a pre-requisite capability in order to stay in business, while for others that could be a challenging, adventurous, venture.
However, very often, atleast some part of the organisation, may benefit from some aspects of the "learning organisation" - even if the overall business/organisation might not in its totality be suitable for it.
For every occasion, there's a suit, and for every suit, there's a tailor. But no tailor, maybe suite for every occasion.
