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Organizational Learning by Design?
By Nathan Greeno
It is clear to me that the corporate education business has a great void of definition for the term “Organizational Learning.” Oh yes, it is something that every significant organization desires to attain or use to describe itself, however, why? Often we are caught up with the frenzy of just returning from the latest conference, gaining the most current buzzwords and believe that the title alone will somehow inspire us to greatness. The reality though, is that every time we try to inspire with words minus concrete actions we don’t inspire our organization, we disable it.
So, what is Organizational Learning? What are its benefits and ultimate outcomes? What are the key factors to its success or failure? That overview is what I am attempting to convey in this position paper. For us to create agile organizations of the 21st century, we must learn as a primary corporate feature. It is the only way for us to keep up with the rate of change that is before us today and will only increase in the future. Truly it can be said that as an organization, to learn is to live. In short, Organizational Learning by Design is:
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Intentional (part of the organizational fabric – integrated and systemic)
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Strategic (goal oriented and vision directed)
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Measurable (traceable to the bottom line)
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Inspirational (human capital responds to investment – your most valuable resource)
One of the reasons defining Organizational Learning can be so difficult is that we are defining a transformational culture shift, not just a transactional program. Traditionally, we have employed trainers to come and bring our employee base up to speed on a given topic. This invokes a transactional change in employee behavior. It is a worthy effort and investment in this area will produce an equivalent transactional outcome. But to make a quantum leap forward as an organization we must think in transformational terms. Often this shift is a greater stress on our paradigms than our pocketbooks.
Organizational Learning inspires its organization’s human capital to reach its strategic goals. Inspiration is transformational. The word “inspire” is used intentionally here and meant with its fullest impact. One does not inspire another by external coercion alone. That is clearly just pulling on a rope. Inspiring human capital to move strategically in alignment with your vision is as much an internal motivation if not more than an external one. This is what must be harnessed and is why it involves a culture shift. Training or “redesigning” alone is only transactional. Organizational Learning initiatives must be both a full partner at the strategic table and be held accountable for bottom line impact.
What we require in the organizational learning profession is a model to provide us concrete guidance and direction as we strategically transform into a learning organization. The key is finding Return on Learning Investment (ROLI). See figure 1
There are five facets of measurable organizational results with the transformation of ROLI. These results are competency attainment, the increased job performance, increased human resource savings, strategic goal attainment and finally, grand strategy attainment. Each one is measurable.
The process for creating these desirable results begins with the concept of alignment. The organization must have a clear grand strategy, enterprise-wide. This strategy pushes down to strategic goals and the actualization of its human capital in alignment with these goals.
In order to reach these five core facets of organizational learning, the organization must first invest in its most valuable resource, its human capital. There are five core organizational inputs required to begin the transformation cycle.
Every one of these organizational inputs must come as a result of the Business Strategic Goal Setting. They are all considered an external control designed to produce the following Organizational Outputs: (each one is measurable)
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Baseline Job Expectations
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Stretch Objectives Thinking (Big Picture / Critical Analysis)
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Talent Pool Retention
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Performance Goal Alignment
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Business Success
Upon organizational investment, employees respond with their own set of inputs forming the baseline of reinvestment within the organization.
• Meeting the Baseline Requirements for the Job
• Increased Educational Attainment
• Personal Growth
• Creating Role Definition
• Personal Reinvestment
In response to employer investment, employees go through a five-step transformation based upon the following internal motivational aspects:
• Job Employability
• Job Enrichment
• Job Enhancement
• Job Satisfaction
• Job Commitment
Training has been a major transactional feature over quite some time. Training, once measured, provides a benchmark for competency attainment. This serves as the baseline for maintaining job employability. Significant job performance increase, however, can be targeted to creating job enrichment through corporate educational programming. This often involves strategic partnerships with colleges and universities or the American Council on Education. The unique feature of educational programs is the dual motivating forces. First you have the external corporate desire for employees to meet stretch objectives and see the big picture through critical thinking and problem solving. Creating an educational opportunity provides the employee with more than just functional training, it becomes transformational. The motivation for this transformation, however is often due to the second primary feature of corporate education programming, which is the internal motivation for educational attainment.
Educational attainment is a valued possession that the employee retains for a lifetime. Contrary to common intuitions, achieving educational attainment in the workplace does not produce a mass exodus from the organization, but a sense of job enrichment and a clear line of sight to the organizational investment in the individual.
Providing a career map for the individual involves the strategic use of the human resource personnel and management within the organization. The result of creating these personal career maps is an individual vision for longevity. The organizational result is key-talent retention, leading to the employee integrating his/her personal growth and receiving job enhancement. This feature of organizational learning is also clearly measurable and an extremely successful cost savings benchmarked against the investment.
When the organization spends a significant amount of time working on getting its human capital aligned with the business strategic goals, success can follow. This success however, can be fleeting if it is not combined with a clear integrated learning process within the performance management system. If done right, the employee gains clear role definition and increased job satisfaction.
Strategically integrated human capital leads to business success. When we invest in learning strategies for our employees the response is quite commonly, personal reinvestment and job commitment.
Often the result of this type of transformational activity will involve the redefinition of role expectations up to and often including the creation of a Chief Learning Officer or a Senior Human Resources Vice President to be placed at the strategic table. There is no question that if the learning strategy is not fully integrated into the organizational grand strategy and strategic goals, success will be fleeting at best.
Some of the largest and most successful organizations of our time have learned these truisms. Perhaps your organization will be next.
For more information on Organizational Learning by Design and the ROLI Model, contact Nathan Greeno President Drawing Board Consulting Group "Organizational Learning by Design"
15419 Snowhill Lane Centreville VA 20120 V. 703-815-1924 F. 571.522.1924 www.drawingboardconsulting.com
nathan@drawingboardconsulting.com
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