Week 1 - foundations 1 introduction

Question 1

Define Learning:

Answer 1

permanent change in behaviour, cognition, or affect that occur[s] as a result of one’s interaction with the environment’.

Question 2

Define Organisations:

Answer 2

• Individuals who group together to accomplish a common goal, or goals.

Question 3

What is a learning organisation? (Garvin)

Answer 3

An organisation skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights.

Question 4

Name some features of a learning org (Senge)

Answer 4

1. Learning valued
2. Ongoing personal development
3. transfer learning to practice
4. systems to capture learning
5. info made available
6. continuous transformation

Question 5

Name characteristics / activities of a L.O - garvins building blocks

Answer 5

Characteristics / activites:

1. Systematic problem solving - sci method, statistical tools
2. Experimentation - ongoing programmes / demonstrated projects
3. Learning from past experience - systematically review successes & failures
4. Learning from others - insights from outside eg benchmarking, customers
5. Transferring knowledge - throughout the org eg reports & tours, active exp

Question 6

What are the 3 stages or org learning? (Garvin)

Answer 6

Cognitive – org member exposed to new ideas. Surveys, questionaires & interviews can measure this.

Behavioural – org members internalise new insights and alter behaviour, questionaires should be supplemented by direct observation to see this.

Performance – changes in behaviour lead to measurable performance. Performance measures such as half life curves can measure results.

Question 7

Define creative tension (Senge)

Answer 7

• Mechanism within personal mastery
• a vision of where we want to be contrasted with the truth of where we are.
• resolved by raising the reality or lowering the vision.

Question 8

Leaders must no longer be ‘heroes’ whith all the answers. They should bow be designers, teachers, stewards (senge)- discuss these roles.

Answer 8

Designer - governing ideas of purpose, vision, values. Operationalise through policy/ strategy , support these with learning processes

Teacher - Helping everyone, gain an insightful view of current reality. 3 levels: events, behaviour, structure

Steward - care for the people, care for the mission

Question 9

Discuss Senge’s 5 disciplines of a Learning Org

Answer 9

1. Systems thinking: ability to see the “whole”
2. Personal mastery: developing expertise & capacity for self-actualisation via learning
3. Mental models: ‘outing’ world views & beliefs that hinder learning / hamper decision making etc
4. Shared vision: consciousness of values binding individuals to organisational goals ( links with affective aspect of learning)
5. Team learning: moving beyond co-operative behaviours to genuinely collaborative dialogue