Article: What We Are to Learn

What We Are to Learn

Organizational learning has been promoted as a necessity for organizations expecting to contend with today’s rapid pace of change. The question that comes to mind, though, is what are organizations to be learning?

Peter Senge, who popularized the concept of organizational learning with the 1990 release of his book The Fifth Discipline, defines the learning organization as one “that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future.” According to Senge, “A learning organization is a place where people are continually discovering how they create their reality. And how they can change it.” This implies that reality is not an objective static state but a dynamic creative process. Reality is what we perceive it to be.

The subjectivity of reality is illustrated by a tribe in the Kalahari who know that the world ends 250 yards beyond their local area. It is reported that if you take them to that boundary, they will see nothing beyond it but a void. If you step over that line, they are no longer able to see you and mourn your departure until your return into the existing world.

We may be quick to judge such beliefs as pathetically ignorant. However, all of us have our 250 yard limit; that point where we believe something to be impossible, untrue, or nonexistent. Some examples. In 1880 Thomas Edison, commenting about his own invention, declared that “The phonograph...is not of any commercial value.” Noted astronomer Simon Newcomb stated in 1902, “Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.” In 1913 the American Road Congress decided, “It quick to judge such beliefs as pathetically ignorant. However, all of us have our 250 yard limit; that point where we believe something to be impossible, untrue, or nonexistent. Some examples. In 1880 Thomas Edison, commenting about his own invention, declared that “The phonograph...is not of any commercial value.” Noted astronomer Simon Newcomb stated in 1902, “Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.” In 1913 the American Road Congress decided, “It quick to judge such beliefs as pathetically ignorant. However, all of us have our 250 yard limit; that point where we believe something to be impossible, untrue, or nonexistent. Some examples. In 1880 Thomas Edison, commenting about his own invention, declared that “The phonograph...is not of any commercial value.” Noted astronomer Simon Newcomb stated in 1902, “Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.” In 1913 the American Road Congresses!” What we are to learn, then, is to identify the assumptions responsible for our current outcomes and alternative perceptions that will support the achievement of our desired results.

The first step in this process is to evaluate your current results. If you are satisfied with the present outcomes, there is no need to do anything different. If you keep doing what you have been doing, you will keep getting the same results. However, if you want different results, then you need to examine what actions have led to where you are now and what assumptions have been generating those behaviors. You then must identify the results you desire, the new behaviors that will achieve those results, and the assumptions that will be A useful process for uncovering individual and group assumptions is dialogue. This process differs from the usual mode of group discussion. The intent of dialogue is not to come to conclusions but to explore the rationale behind people’s perceptions of an issue. In a dialogue, as you share your own views on a particular topic with other members of your group, you also share the data upon which you base your conclusions. You then invite the other group members to ask questions to help clarify the assumptions that underlie your view. This process is repeated with each member of the group. The purpose is to understand the experiences and information that has led each person to his or her stance. By suspending judgment and debate, dialogue helps create a pool of common meaning. The group can then synthesize from this reservoir of meaning new assumptions to support the achievement of the intended goal.

To remain competitive in an ever-changing environment, it is necessary for people, individually and collectively, to continually examine their own thinking. What we must learn is how to always be ready to change our minds.