Organisations have Learning Ability

Introduction - From Scottish Executive Papers
Quotations from the announcement of the inquiry:

The above reflects a similar vision expressed in "The Way Forward - Framework for Economic Development in Scotland."

We would wish to identify with the "economic" theme of the above statements.

And from "The Way Forward" report let us quote some relevant facts.

Scotland has a low GDP despite having a higher proportion of graduates (p46)

The above facts support our own observations that in Scottish organisations the talent of the individual invariably exceeds the ability of the organisation to use those talents.

We therefore identify two constraints -The skill and knowledge of the individual and the capability of the organisation to use that skill. The proposition of this paper is that future lifelong learning strategies and funding of Scotland should address both constraints - individual and organisational learning - and ensure that there is a balance.

An Analogy: - Danah Zohar in her book "Re-wiring the Corporate Brain" uses the workings of the brain to draw parallels with the working of organisations. The brain has billions of cells and the intelligence/knowledge is a function of all the neural connections between the cells. It is not the ability of each cell that determines intelligence but all the connections. The analogy with organisations is that it is not so much the talent of each individual that determines its capability but how effectively all the thinking units are interconnected.

The fundamental mind shift our Learning Network wishes to propose is that an organisation - just like a brain - has a memory - and learning potential. And the memory and learning potential is relative to the connections, the structure, and the culture of the organisation.

There is, therefore, considerable opportunity to develop strategies to address the lifelong learning ability of organisations - especially if we are thinking in terms of economic objectives.

We spend millions training the individual but the vast majority of that training is wasted because the organisation itself, though it's traditional culture, is slow to learn and change. Its structures, reporting formats and the interconnections remain similar from one generation to another. It is a misconception to think that the organisation will modernise when the people are more highly trained. The majority of Scots do not feel that they have the scope to modernise the systems, links and connections with their organisations. This is especially prevalent in Scottish public sector enterprises.

We use the above cartoon to parody our traditional management culture. It is characterised by initiatives originating from the top, there is a proper division of responsibilities, prompt reporting formats and problems are thought to be caused by the lack of diligence or competence of staff.

In its time it was a very successful style of management despite the fact that it wasted the innovative thinking of the majority of employees. Business is now so complex and competitive we can no longer afford this waste.

This is not a new theme. Researchers and thinkers have throughout the last century been highlighting that our paradigm of management has run its course. It is no longer meeting the needs, nor solving the challenges, of the 21^st century.

The language of the new paradigm is systems, knowledge management, empowerment, co-operation, partnership, empowerment, social captial, vartiation, joined up thinking, self organising systems and intrinsic motivation. This is very different from the language of our traditional thinking that retains such terms as targets, budgets, appraisal, training, supervision, accountability, payment by results, fixed assets etc.

Some companies have successfully achieved this transformation. A study conducted by Motorola found some companies with good quality (say one failure per hundred) and other companies with truly excellent quality (one failure per million). The significant finding was that there were none in between. Excellence was not achieved through gradual improvement and by trying harder. The excellent companies simply thought differently.

Richard Pascale describes the transformation as a metamorphous. "Many companies need to reinvent themselves. And reinvention is not changing what is, but creating what isn't. A butterfly is a different creature. Reinvention entails a series of continuous metamorphoses of this magnitude over time"

It is the organisation that needs to change - needs to learn. It is our organisations that are going to achieve our economic objectives, it is they who use or waste the considerable talent and ability of the Scottish people. It is they who "lie at the heart of our nation's future economic wellbeing."

The Deming Learning Network requests that in addressing the future strategies for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning the Scottish Government should have policies and initiatives directed at both individual learning and the learning of the organisations.

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