More information:https://flevy.com/browse/flevypro/learning-organization-primer-3829 A Learning Organization is an organization where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new ideas and thinking are nurtured, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together. In order to outshine rivals, organizations need to discover how to tap into people's commitment and capacity to learn at all levels. This deck first talks about the 5 core characteristics that are central to a Learning Organization: 1. Systems Thinking 2. Personal Mastery 3. Mental Models 4. Shared Vision 5. Team Learning The presentation then highlights the role of leadership in Learning Organizations, and describes the 3 key qualities of leaders that are critical in leading a learning enterprise: 1. Designer 2. Steward 3. Teacher The slide deck also includes some slide templates for you to use in your own business presentations.

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Do You Know What Makes an Organization a Learning
Organization?
Contributed by Mark Bridges on June 26, 2019 in Management & Leadership, Organization, Change, & HR
Learning Organization: 5
Building Blocks
37-slide PowerPoint presentation
Learning Organization:
Leveraging Best Practices
29-slide PowerPoint presentation
Best Practices Transfer
Program
30-slide PowerPoint presentation
In this era of rapid change only organizations that are evolving and continuously learning can succeed. Successful organizations discover how
to tap their people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels.
A Learning Organization is a place where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new ideas and
thinking are nurtured, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together. A Learning Organization is established on the
principles of innovation, free flow of ideas, and a consistent focus on transforming the ways of doing business.
Learning Organizations adopt 5 distinct practices to succeed, which form the “building blocks” of such organizations:

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Systematic Problem Solving
Experimentation
Learning from Experience
Learning from Others
Knowledge Transfer
Five key characteristics distinguish a Learning Organization from the rest. These attributes serve as the
guiding principles and practices that these organizations study and integrate into their DNA. A blend of
these core characteristics helps organizations adopt a more interconnected way of thinking:
1. Systems Thinking
2. Personal Mastery
3. Mental Models
4. Shared Vision
5. Team Learning

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By adopting and mastering these core characteristics organizations become communities that employees can commit to. Let’s, now, discuss
the first 3 characteristics in detail.
Systems Thinking
Systems thinking allows people to study businesses as bounded objects. Learning Organizations possess information systems to assess the
performance of the organization and its components as a whole. Systems thinking states that all the characteristics must be present together
in an organization for it to be a Learning Organization. However, some experts consider that the characteristics of a Learning Organization
are gradually acquired, rather than developed simultaneously.
Personal Mastery
Personal mastery is an individual’s commitment to learning. It is about becoming more productive by applying skills to work in the most
constructive manner. It involves clarification of focus, vision, and to interpret reality objectively. Training, development, and continuous self-
improvement are the sources of individual learning.
Mental Models
Mental models include assumptions and generalizations retained by individuals and organizations, which go undetected, as mental models
limit peoples’ observations. Learning Organizations need to identify and challenge these models. For a learning environment it is important
to replace confrontational attitudes with an open culture that promotes inquiry and trust, introduce mechanisms for uncovering and assessing
organizational theories of action, and discard any unwanted values.
Role of Leadership
Productivity and competitiveness relies on knowledge generation and processing. Therefore, organizations not only have to invest in new
machinery and systems to improve production, but also focus on knowledge generation and learning of their people. Learning Organizations
require a new view of leadership. Leaders in Learning Organizations create workplaces that help people keep building their capabilities to
understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental models.
Peter Senge describes the 3 key qualities of leaders to be critical in leading the Learning Organization:
1. Designer
2. Steward
3. Teacher
Designer

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The key roles of a leader as a designer in Learning Organizations is designing the policies, strategies, and systems. The designer also outlines
the governing ideas—the purpose, vision, and core values—for the people. They plan and develop the learning processes whereby people
throughout the organization can deal productively with the critical issues they face, and cultivate personal mastery of the team members in
the desired learning disciplines.
Steward
According to Peter Senge, the notion of management in this modern age should be replaced by “stewardship”—whereby control and
consistency should be swapped with partnership and choice. The leader as a steward tells ‘purpose stories’ about their organization and relate
those stories. They explain the reasons of the tasks that are required to be performed, the need for the organization to evolve, and the purpose
of evolution. They learn to listen to other people, involve them, and develop vision—both individual and shared.
Interested in learning more about the key attributes of leaders and core characteristics of a Learning Organization? You can download an
editable PowerPoint on Learning Organization Primer here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
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Learning Organization: 5
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About Mark Bridges
Mark Bridges is a Senior Director of Strategy at Flevy. Flevy is your go-to resource for best practices in business management, covering
management topics from Strategic Planning to Operational Excellence to Digital Transformation (view full list here). Learn how the Fortune
100 and global consulting firms do it. Improve the growth and efficiency of your organization by leveraging Flevy's library of best practice

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methodologies and templates. Prior to Flevy, Mark worked as an Associate at McKinsey & Co. and holds an MBA from the Booth School of Business at the
University of Chicago. You can connect with Mark on LinkedIn here.
View all posts by Mark Bridges →

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