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 What
is required in today’s environment is to have organisations where
people learn from their mistakes, where experimentation and innovation
are encouraged and new work practices are adopted, notes Sangeeta
Chopra
Imagine
an organisation where an employee’s mistakes are constantly
highlighted, there is an adherence to set work practices, reviews
are performed after disasters, each department functions like an
organisation and questioning by the workforce is discouraged. This
is what is generally found in a traditional organisation. However,
to succeed in current business environment, a different mindset
and management approach is a need of the times. What is needed is
an organisation where people learn from their mistakes, the staff
is coached and developed by the managers, experimentation and innovation
is encouraged and new work practices are adapted. And ofcourse,
the workforce is encouraged to question the decisions. This in a
nutshell defines a ‘Learning Organisation’.
According
to Peter M Senge, the author of The Fifth Discipline, in a learning
organisation people are continually expanding their capacities for
creating the results they truly desire and learn together.
In
today’s scenario, as the gap between the capability need and
actual capability is widening, and as the requirement for client
focus is increasing, organisations working on traditional lines
would not be able to attain their projected growth patterns. In
extreme cases they may not be able to survive at all. In this scenario,
an intervention like the learning organisation becomes essential.
How
to create a learning organisation? Let’s take the example of
a software development organisation. The two most critical areas
of focus for these companies are timely delivery and quality of
the product/services. If any organisation decides to go in for a
learning organisation intervention, it can adopt some of the suggested
work practices:
Reflections
sharing experiences to grow from within: An important characteristic
of a successful organisation is its ability to grow from within.
To respond to client’s need in a better manner, organisations
conduct regular interaction within teams and also between cross-functional
teams. These interactions take place on a fortnightly or monthly
basis and benefits organisations in faster product delivery, lesser
defects and cutting down on other bottlenecks.
Experience
sharing learning from ‘on-site’ experience: It is not
only important for executives to learn from other’s experiences
but is also for organisations to encourage sharing of experience
among team members to build stronger relationships with customers
and improve its processes to reduce time to market. ‘Experience
sharing’ includes learnings of the individual with specific
clients and sharing of his/her experience within the team to the
benefit of other customers. Among other benefits the most important
thing that experience sharing does is to enable an organisation
to learn the softer side of handling the client, such as language
skills, food and business etiquette.
Developing
mentors: It is my experience that managers in the IT industry are
so bogged down by meeting their delivery schedules, that they have
almost no time for grooming/mentoring their teams. An initiative
to develop mentors could help direct the attention of the managers
to this critical area.
Creating
centres of excellence: Every organisation has those critical employees
who are reliable, technically sound skilful and loyal to the company.
Instead of having “islands” of this kind of excellence,
an initiative could be taken to replicate these “islands”
to spread the expertise within the organisation.
Systems
learning lab: Since everyone in the organisation is a part of the
same lacework, it is difficult to see the whole pattern. Instead,
there would be focus only on certain snapshots of the whole lacework.
Through systems thinking, a body of knowledge or tools is created,
that makes the “full patterns” clearer.
Team
awards: Development teams could be motivated by declaring awards
for the team that cause their delivery to go on time and ensure
a good quality as well. The rewards need not be monetary. There
could be awards that the team can share together.
Bulletin
board: Another tool that could be effective in creating shared knowledge
is the in-house bulletin board or the company’s own portal.
It
is time for organisations to discover how to tap people’s commitment
and capacity to learn at all levels. However, an important thing
to keep in mind is that learning happens not for its own sake, but
for achieving the organisation’s objectives.
Sangeeta
Chopra is organisation development manager, Vedaris Technology
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