Definition of Learning Organisation
A Learning Organisation is one where people continually expand their capacity
to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of
thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free and where people
are continually learning how to learn together.
- Peter Senge
Definition of Organisational Learning
Organisation Learning is the intentional use of learning processes at individual,
group and system level to continuously transform the organisation in a direction
that is increasingly satisfying to its stakeholders.
- N. Dixon
Why we should bother with organisational learning?
Besides the mission, purpose and operating environment, leadership in the SAF is
also unique because of the complex nature of the “desire outcomes” in the SAF’s
mission, SAF leaders are required to lead in a manner that not only leverages on
technology to get the job done, but also constantly builds and maintains their
followers “will to fight”. It is vital that our leaders are able to engage their followers
at work. Moreover, just like any organisation, the SAF leaders must lead people
in a manner that ensures constant organisational learning. Hence, the kind of
leadership required in the SAF is one that must balance a host of outcomes that
matter – not only to the SAF – but also to the individuals who serve with them.
- SAF LD Doctrine Directive 02-2004
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 67
Performance
This space
defines the
Quality of Work.
Experience
The fundamental results of WORK Performance, Experience, and Learning
- are interdependent. If individuals aren”t
learning, their performance will decline
over time; if their predominant experience
of work is boredom or stress, both learning
and performance will suffer.
The Systems Thinker, Volume 8, Number 6,
August 1997
68 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
Note the limited scope for
the Quality of Work to
grow if the predominant
preoccupation is only on
Performance.
Learning
Responsible leaders should ask themselves, “What good theories do we have
that provide practical guidance for ensuring our organisation’s future success?”
The more clearly you can articulate your organisation’s theories about what
leads to success, the more deliberate you can be about investing in the elements
that are critical to that success.
One such core theory would be based on the premise that as the quality of
the relationships among people who work together increases (high team spirit,
mutual respect, and trust), the quality of thinking improves (people consider more
facets of an issue and share a greater number of different perspectives). When
the level of thinking is heightened, the quatity of actions is likely to improve (better
planning, greater coordination, and higher commitment). In turn the quaIity of
results increases as well. Achieving high quality results as a team generally has
a positive effect on the quality of relationshlips, thus creating a virtuous cycle of
better and better results.
The most important point
about this kind of systemic
theory is that the success is not
derived from any one of the
individual variables that make
up the loop, but rather from
the loop itself. [This] ... forces us
to pay attention to how all the
variables are doing and how
each is affecting the others in
the loop.
Organising for Learning:
Strategies for Knowledge Creation and Enduring Change
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 69
S
Quality of
Results
(Vision)
Quality of
Relationship
(Communication)
REINFORCING
ENGINE OF
SUCCESS
S
Quality of
Actions
(Planning)
S
Quality of
Collective
Thinking
(Reflection)
S
As the quality
of relationship rises, the quality of thinking improves,
leading to an increase in the quality of actions and results. Achieving high-quality
results has a positive effect on the quality of relationships, creating a reinforcing
engine of success.
Source: Organising for Learning, Daniel H. Kim
70 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
• Personal Mastery
• Shared Vision
g
ndin
erstalexity
Undo
p
C m
Generative
Conversation
tion
Organisational Learning
Capabilities
Aspira
)
Capacity to Create
Your Own Future
• Mental Models
• Team Learning
• Systems Thinking
The stool is a metaphor for the core learning capabilities (aspiration,
generative conversation and understanding complexity) that will help an organisation
build the capacity to create the future or results it truly desires.
Source: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 71
Mental Models
Personal Mastery
Systems
Thinking
Team Learning
Each discipline
Shared Vision
provides a vital dimension in building learning
organisations. Systems Thinking is represented in the center because it serves to
integrate the disciplines, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice.
72 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
Capacity to Create
Your Own Future
g
ndin
erstalexity
Undo
p
C m
Generative
Conversation
ASPIR
ATIO
N
Organisational Learning
Capabilities
Learning to expand our personal capacity to formulate
a coherent picture of the results we desire as individuals
and having a realistic assessment of the current state.
“The essence of Personal Mastery is learning how to
generate and sustain creative tension in our lives.”
Source: The Fifth Discipline, Peter M. Senge
Principles and Practices of
Personal Mastery
Personal Vision
Holding Creative Tension
Commitment to the Truth
Using The Subconscious
Seeing Our Connectedness
to the World
Compassion
Commitment to the Whole
Integrating Reason and Intuition
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 73
Focus is
on what
I want
Creating
Vision
Creative
Tension
Structural
Tension
Emotional
Tension
Generative
Orientation
Gap
Current
Reality
Focus is
on what
I don”t
want
Problem
Solving
Reactive
Orientation
Source: The Path of Least Resistence, Robert Fritz
74 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
Capacity to Create
Your Own Future
g
ndin
erstalexity
Undo
p
C m
Generative
Conversation
ASPIR
ATIO
N
Organisational Learning
Capabilities
Building a sense of commitment
in a group by developing shared images of the future,
we seek to create and the principles and guiding
practices by which we hope to get there.
Source: The Fifth Discipline, Peter M. Senge
Principles of
Building Shared Vision
Anchoring Vision to Purpose and Values
Personal Vision
Spreading Vision
– Enrolment
– Commitment
– Compliance
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 75
Area of Focus
Relevant Questions:
Other
Choices
Organisations tend to ask
all these questions – Who,
Why, What, How, Which
at Activities Level, without
first
determining
the
fundamental choice.
Tertiary Choice
– Which?
Activities –
Tactics –
Strategy –
Vision –
Purpose –
Identity –
Secondary Choice
– How?
Primary Choice
– What?
Fundamental Choice
– Why?
Core Values
– Who are we?
Source: Foresight as the Central Ethnic of Leadership by Daniel Kim
76 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
Capacity to Create
Your Own Future
g
ndin
erstalexity
Undo
p
C m
GENERATIVE
CONVERSATION
Aspira
tion
Organisational Learning
Capabilities
Mental Models are deeply ingrained assumptions,
generalisations or even pictures or images that influence
how we understand the world and take action.
The discipline of working with the mental models starts
with learning to unearth our internal pictures of the
world, to bring them to the surface so as to examine
and change them if necessary.
Source: The Fifth Discipline, Peter M. Senge
Managing Mental Models
Skills of Reflection
- Recognising Leaps of Abstraction
- Recognising Left Hand column
Inquiry Skills
- Balancing Inquiry & Advocacy
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 77
I take actions
based on my beliefs
The reflexive loop
(our beliefs
affect what
data we
select
next time)
I adopts beliefs
about the world
bstraction
s of o
p
Loo
I select “data”
I want
Observable “data”
and behaviour (as a
videotape recorder
might capture it)
creating loop
I add Meaning
(cultural and
personal)
igm
rad
I made assumptions
based on the
meaning I added
Pa
I draw
conclusions
MANAGING MENTAL
MODELS
Skills of Reflection
- Recognising
Leaps of
Abstraction
- Recognising Left
Hand column
Inquiry Skills
- Balancing Inquiry
& Advocacy
The Ladder
of Inference provides a framework for exploring
mental models. The reflexive loop illustrates how our mental models
can influence the way we view reality. We make leaps up the Ladder
of Inference from data to values and assumptions, and then operate
based on those assumptions as if they are reality. It can also be called the
paradigm - creating loop, because it is the process through which, over
time, we develop a shared set of cultural assumptions and values about
how we view reality.
Source: Organising for Learning, Daniel H. Kim
78 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
Capacity to Create
Your Own Future
g
ndin
erstalexity
Undo
p
C m
GENERATIVE
CONVERSATION
Aspira
tion
Organisational Learning
Capabilities
Team Learning is the process of learning
how to learn together. It is also the process of aligning
and developing the capability of a team. Central to
Team Learning is use of reflection and inquiry skills and
the practice of dialogue.
Source: The Fifth Discipline, Peter M. Senge
Discipline of Team Learning
Dialogue and Discussion
Dealing with: “Current Reality”
Practice
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 79
To provide time & space for everyone within a group to have an
opportunity to reflect out on a common subject.
To improve the quality of collective thinking by hearing and making
more explicit the individual perspectives/assumptions within the
group.
To prepare the way for more reflective, dialogic conversation.
CHECK-IN PROCESS
Take one minute to “center” yourself
Someone starts off by holding an object that physically symbolizes the
“right to speak”.
The speaker takes some time to say whatever he or she wants, with
no constraints.
While the speaker is talking, no one interrupts.
When the speaker is done, he or she says, “I’m in”. The rest
acknowledge by saying, “You’re welcome.”
The speaker passes the talking object to adjacent person.
The process is repeated until everyone has had a chance to speak.
CHECK-OUT PROCESS
Follow same process as check-in.
Only difference is each person finished by saying “I’m out.”
80 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
Listen and learn with a spirit of inquiry.
Suspend judgements and assumptions.
Treat each other with respect.
One conversation.
Be present. Be here now.
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 81
ve
ei
Observe
Re
f
c
le
t
Pe
rc
“Concrete World”
Assess
ce
na
io
Co
n
lise
Act
p
se
a li
tu
Design
O
p
er
at
“Conceptual World”
82 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
INSIGHTS
Curiosity
Clarity
Inquiry
Criticism
Advocacy
Depth of
Listening
Competition
INQUISITION
Balancing Inquiry
and Advocacy
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 83
Goals
Set Goal
What’s
Next
Determine
Next Steps
Assess
Current Reality
Reality
Brainstorm
Options
Goals
What would you like to talk about? Achieve? Resolve? Solve?
What would you like to accomplish in the time we have available?
Reality
What is happening now? What have you tried so far?
Options
If you had unlimited resources, what might you do?
What’s Next
Of these options, what are your most powerful next steps?
Source: Partnership Coaching, Rebecca Bradley
84 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
Capacity to Create
Your Own Future
ING
AND
ERST XITY
UNDOMPLE
C
Generative
Conversation
Aspira
tion
Organisational Learning
Capabilities
Systems Thinking is the discipline concerned
with shifting minds from seeing parts to seeing wholes. It
is a framework for seeing inter-relationships rather than
things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static
“snapshots”.
Sources: The Fifth Discipline, Peter M. Senge
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 85
In the most basic sense, a system is a group of interacting,
interrelated, or interdependent parts that form a complex and unifield
whole that has a specific purpose.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SYSTEMS
Systems have purpose.
All parts must be present for a system to carry out its purpose
optimally.
The order in which the parts are arranged affects the perfomance of
a system.
Systems attempt to maintain a certain “balance” (in pursuit of its
purpose) through feedback.
Source: Introduction to System Thinking, Daniel H. Kim
86 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
Most people find themselves stuck in the reactive (events) and
adaptive (patterns) action modes. Although these action modes have
their usefulness, they do not have lasting effect and greater leverage to
influence one’s future. Managers need to learn to operate at higher levels
of perspective (systemic structures, mental modes and vision) and develop
their capacities to be more creative, reflective, and generative.
LEVERAGE INCREASES
Source: Introduction to Systems Thinking, Daniel H. Kim
Levels of
Understanding
Action
Mode
Vision
Generative
Mental Models
Reflective
Systemic Structures
Creative
Patterns
Adaptive
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
Events
Reactive
Time
Orientation
Present
Source: Organising for Learning by Daniel Kim
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 87
Writing journals, diaries, or daybooks is a method of keeping track of what
happened during your day, from mere facts (like what the thermometer
at the airport read at noon) to details of
personal psychological growth you perceived
as a result of some encounter. Facts, events,
and moments of insight are equally valid
subjects of journal entries.
To get the most from textbooks and the
course it accompanies, you need to actually
apply the concepts it describes. Journaling is
a basic tool to accomplish this goal.
A journal is a personal record used to keep track of experience whether
that experience becomes the basis of a public history or science, or is a
record of self, for the self-only. The term journal had its origin in the French
word jour, or day. A journal is a record, a daily record if one adheres
carefully to the defined meaning. Like trying to do any chore once a week
when it should be done daily, one cannot enter into a journal for a whole
week by opening the journal for a whole week by opening the journal just
once. (You don’t eat one big meal each week or try to read a week’s worth
of newspapers in one sitting-instead you engage in those activities daily.)
The point is that you should make entries in your journal daily.
88 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
As a result of your journaling efforts,:
Reflect upon processes and strategies
to support your learning and
development.
Reflect upon processes and strategies
to support and effect organisational
change.
Endless drama in a group clouds
consciousness. Too much noise
overwhelms the senses. Continual
input obscures genuine insight. Do
not substitute sensationalism for
learning.
When group members have
time to reflect, they can see
more clearly what is essential in
themselves and others.
Allow regular time for silent
reflection. Turn inward and digest
what has happened. Let the
senses rest and grow still.
Teach people to let go of their
superficial mental chatter and
obsessions. Teach people to pay
attention to the whole body’s
reaction to a situation.
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 89
* Individual Level
* Reflect on “PAST” lessons learnt
* Determine Mission & Learning
* Team level
”OBJECTIVES”
* Commander Level
(Operational Military Knowledge,
Leadership Behaviour, Values)
+
* Team Level
* Planning & Preparation
* Team Level
Reflection
AARs
Conduct Supplementary Training
Before Activity Review (BAR)
“Learning from EXPERIENCES“
PRINCIPLES:
During Activity
“Learning IN
Moving forward by looking back
Resource and support learning
SAF Knowledge
Management System
Reference: LD Doctrine Directive 6/2007 dated 20 November 07
90 The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs
Operational Military
Knowledge
& Leadership
Development
ity
(Self-Reflection)
(Facilitation)
(Coaching)
* ”INDIVIDUAL” & “TEAM” levels
(Operational Military Knowledge,
Leadership Behaviours, Values)
ORGANISATIONAL
*”
” level
(SOPs, Doctrine, Leadership Stories & Case Studies)
(Conceptualise)
(Application)
/ Coaching
Review Practices
Redesign Training
Review (DAR)
/ ON ACTIONS“
Post Activity Review (PAR)
“CONSOLIDATE Learning”
Begins with an end in mind Multi-level Learning
Capitalise on memory and recency effect
Select
Transfer
Systems
Translating
Lessons
Learnt into
Heuristics
e.g. SOPs, Doctrines,
Leadership stories,
Case Studies.
The New Adventures of Army WOSpecs 91