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Learning Architecture A strategic approach
Hello, LAB SSJ’s experience in developing learning solutions aligned with business goals shows us that the creation of a development culture is indispensable and strategic to increase competitiveness and face the complex challenges of today’s business world. We have increasingly observed that the learning process must cease to be the domain of just a handful of T&D professionals and needs to be dealt by executives as one of the most important strategic pillars of business. In this pocket book’s seventh edition, we bring essential concepts from the book Designing the Smart Organization, by Roland Deiser, showing that corporate leaders can expand their repertoire creating a culture that establishes organizational learning as a primary source of strategic sustainability for business.
Enjoy!
conte Global competition, changes in the workforce and the need for greater understanding of the worldwide scenario have placed organizations before a range of unprecedented challenges. Today, the production of knowledge and learning has been increasingly considered a competitive advantage. Companies of all types, sizes and from all sectors are seeking
innovation, productivity and growth - factors that greatly rely on the ability to translate knowledge into business results. In this manner, learning not only becomes essential, but also takes
ext on a new dimension and a new meaning. More than the individual empowerment of professionals, there is a need for an ongoing
and wide-ranging learning structure capable of promoting dialogue, stimulating the ability to constantly challenge the status quo, carry out the management of change processes and even transcend business models. Hence not only the collaborators and the teams need to learn continually, but so does the whole company. This capacity for learning is what allows companies to make better decisions and to keep up with the pace of constant change in the present scenario.
This is how corporate learning comes to be seen no longer as a cost, but rather as a strategic initiative to generate results on a range of levels within the organization. Thus the challenge to management and to areas responsible for development and training lies in facilitating learning for implementing the business strategy, proposing initiatives and complete experiences that lead to the development of efficient and innovative abilities in the collaborators.
learning as a
strategic force Strategic learning is one that produces results, and is transformed into real action and facilitates execution of the business strategy. From this perspective, learning becomes intimately connected to a non-stop process of creation, formulation and implementation of strategic positioning, ensuring the company always is renewed. It is in this sense that the role of corporate education and development initiatives need to cover a broader scope than that of merely sharing knowledge or providing training that fails to aggregate value. The purpose must be to create experiences that lead to change and learning processes always aligned with the business strategy.
Case study
Learning promotes
strategic dialogue All of the 85 most senior leaders of a company employing more than 460 thousand individuals took part in a week of intense talks regarding the future of the company, while simultaneously questioning their own patterns of behavior in coaching sessions. They were exposed to new perspectives on the development of the long-term strategy and they discovered that a creative environment of open learning provided the possibility of discussing challenges and developing commonly held perceptions and ideas for improvements.
The fact that all of the top executives were involved in the program sent a powerful message to all levels of the organization, showing that the company took the learning and the development of its leaders seriously. The project had a significant effect on the company’s mentality and culture, thereby promoting strategic and organizational dialogue. The initiative also led to the creation of a valuable network of leaders committed to the future planning of initiatives for organizational learning within the company around the world.
If the development departments have credibility – and the power this brings – to design architectures for dialogue such as this one, and if they are capable of winning the support of the main stakeholders in the company, they may serve as true agents of change – not only as motivators, but as the true driving force behind strategic and organizational transformation.
Source: “Designing the Smart Organization: How Breakthrough Corporate Learning Initiatives Drive Strategic Change and Innovation”, Roland Deiser, 2009.
Some benefits of learning aligned with strategy: • High performance with a competitive edge • Innovation • Greater capacity for dealing with change • Committed and motivated team • Better relationship with customers • Greater resilience • Cultural reinforcement
What the
scholars say The concept of an “organization that learns” as a goal, a situation that can be achieved
Peter Senge (1990)
Chris Argyris & Donald Alan Schön (1978)
Organizational learning as a process
David Garvin (1993)
Mary Ann Glynn; Theresa K. Lant & Frances J. Milliken (1994) The organizational learning process as an integral part of performance and learning
“A place where people continually expand their capacity to create 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.”
“An entity learns if, through its processing of information, the range of its potential behaviors is changed.”
George P. Huber (1991)
“An organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.”
David Schwandt & Michael J. Marquardt (1999)
“Organizational learning occurs in companies that are in constant change, where groups and individuals continually engage with new learning processes to obtain and maintain a competitive edge.”
How does one implement a learning culture?
“Changes in social systems are brought about by the learning process and are related to cultural standards and basic suppositions.” – Talcott Parsons In order for learning to play its strategic and guiding role within the company it is important for it to be part of the culture within that organization. It is the culture that constantly molds and stimulates the formation of the team skills, as well as dictating habits and ways of thinking and behaving within the company.
In this sense, understanding the importance of creating a learning culture requires more than just the usual efforts in training and development. For learning to become an integral component of the company’s culture, it is essential to create a common drive by way of goals, language and values.
Case study:
Building a collaborative
culture
Administrating integration and cultural unity represent a major challenge when dealing with mergers, acquisitions, fundamental changes in leadership or strategic direction. In such cases, the company undergoes major structural changes before finding its balance.
analysis sessions and decision processes aimed at all of the collaborators, not only to the management and executives. The leadership’s guidance and the autonomy and motivation of the collaborators to create new values were decisive.
This case is a good demonstration of how In the wake of a merger, a change is instigated less certain German public utilities by the broadcasting of company, with 21 thousand messages within traditional collaborators and more than 6 environments than by million customers experienced designing a wide-reaching years of cultural conflicts. The organizational process that solution came when the academy introduces dialogue and of corporate education led a reflection regarding the broad-based initiative to redefine essence of the company the company values from the as a whole. This experience bottom up, inviting more than a shows that change is not so thousand collaborators to take much a question of part in the campaign. “teaching” content within traditional contexts, Based on a culture of dialogue, but rather designing an the academy created and all-encompassing organizational provided a number of workshops, learning process. Source: “Designing the Smart Organization: How Breakthrough Corporate Learning Initiatives Drive Strategic Change and Innovation”, Roland Deiser, 2009.
The role of
leadership What internal processes and policies stimulate the company’s learning culture? Which skills and competencies are essential for the collaborators to achieve the strategy? Are the collaborators involved in finding and implementing solutions to problems? These and other questions need to be on the radar of all leaders that seek to build an environment that favors learning. This environment open and receptive to learning is created from the top leadership. It is
the leaders who must establish learning and development as a strategic priority. The direct support of management in actions and words is fundamental to determining whether learning is to be applied or ignored by the company’s collaborators. Leaders are to promote learning initiatives that stimulate the involvement of all for the good of all, since change depends on the participation and understanding of the business on the part of the collaborators. For this reason, besides
understanding the business strategy and the direct importance of the organizational culture, leaders and professionals that work with learning need to make use of the knowledge that is often existent in the company. In this sense, it is essential to motivate and engage personnel. By stimulating collaboration and the exchange of knowledge the company provides a space where collaborators may act with autonomy and responsibility. In this way, the individuals begin to work as a united team, capable of responding and adapting to constant changes. It is important to underline that the companies that best develop the capacity to learn and to
translate knowledge into action are those that understand the power of common sense and the strength of simplicity: in language, in structure, in concepts. Thus, leaders should promote open dialogue within their teams, allowing mistakes and seeking new possibilities among the collaborators who exercise a direct influence. It is through this active work that they will be able to construct organizations that facilitate collaboration and the exchange of knowledge throughout the company. In short, some factors that help to constantly generate individual and collective learning are:
1
Encourage participation in formal learning initiatives and demand results.
2
and other areas.
3
Use of storytelling
4 5
Stimulate the exchange among your team
as a practice for connection and sharing of knowledge.
Have leaders as teachers Have leaders as role models and adopt behaviors that promote learning, with reflection, questioning and activities integrated with performance.
How leaders
turn knowledge
“Why” before “how” Learning the “why” in terms of general guidance for action, instead of learning the “how” in terms of detailed and technical practices and behaviors.
“Knowing” comes from “doing” and teaching others how Learning is best done by trying lot things, learning from what works and what does not, thinking about what was learned, and trying again.
Action counts more than elegant plans and concepts Without taking some action, learning is more difficult and less efficient, because it is not grounded in real experience.
There is no doing without mistakes Even well planned actions can go wrong. All learning involves some failure, something from which one can continue to learn.
into action Fear fosters knowing-doing gaps, so drive out fear To turn knowledge into action, leaders must inspire respect, connection and admiration, but not fear.
Fight the competition, not each other Practices that intensify internal rivalry affect performance in general. Through cooperation, each member’s success is linked with other’s and the result become the product of common effort.
Measure what matters and what can help turn knowledge into action It is not always efficient to measure everything. It is better to establish a few measures that are directly related to the strategy than a plethora of measures that produce a lack of focus and confusion about what is important and what is not.
What the leaders do, how they spend their time and how they allocate resources matters The job of leaders is to help build systems that facilitate transformation of knowledge into action in a smooth, reliable way.
Source: “The Knowing-Doing Gap”, Jeffrey Pfeffer & Robert I. Sutton. Harvard Business School Press, 2000.
Results-Driven
methodology Translating knowledge into results requires tracking and supervision of the corporate training that ensures the strategic effectiveness of learning. In this sense, the 6Ds methodology proposes a complete learning experience aligned with business goals. Consisting of six disciplines, it guarantees the transfer and application of learning to the daily work routine, thereby increasing the effectiveness of development initiatives with an impact on the results.
D1 Define business outcomes The learning goals must be established based on business needs.
D2 Design the complete experience It is necessary to consider the phases of learning, from the goals of the program to confirmation of the results.
D3 Deliver for application The contents must be relevant and useful to the learner in order to be assimilated and applied in the workplace.
D4 Drive learning transfer Actions of tracking and supervision must provide support for the transfer in order to learning is effectively translated into action.
D5 Deploy performance support Managerial support for the performance of the participants is vital to increase the possibility of transferring the learning and its value to the business.
D6 Document results Measures and documentation are essential to show the initiative has brought results.
The book 6Ds shows how it is possible to design learning initiatives with a procedural, disciplined approach, carried out with consistency, commitment and excellence to achieve strategic goals.
must be Relevant:
just in time, just for me, intelligently responsive
Compelling:
learning environment stimulates heightened sense of engagement and curiosity
Collaborative:
access to expertise and knowledge enables innovation and deepens community
Continuous: Blend of formal and informal learning; lifelong
Outcome-based:
tailored and adaptive learning paths drive performance in a dynamic world
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To create the strategic competence to sustain industry leadership — or just mere survival — companies now need comprehensive learning architectures that go way beyond people qualification.
Roland Deiser Deiser, author of “Designing the Smart Organization”
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Bibliography DEISER, R. Organizações Inteligentes: Como a Arquitetura da Aprendizagem Sustenta a Estratégia Corporativa. Campus-Elsevier, 2011. PIETERSEN, W. G. Strategic Learning: A Leadership Process for Creating and Implementing Breakthrough Strategies. Wiley, 2010. POLLOCK, R.; WICK, C. & JEFFERSON, A. 6Ds: As Seis Disciplinas que Transformam Educação em Resultado para o Negócio. Évora, 2011. SCHWANDT, D. & MARQUARDT, M. J. Organizational Learning. CRC Press, 1999. SENGE, P. M. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Doubleday, 1990. VAN DEN STEEN, E. On the Origin of Shared Beliefs. MIT Sloan School of Management, 2005.
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