In order to improve, an organization must first learn something new, otherwise they are simply repeating old practices. Peter Senge, who popularized learning organizations in his book The Fifth Discipline, described them as places “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.” There are flaws with this definition however, as it leaves important questions unanswered. How, for example, will managers know when their companies have become learning organizations? And what concrete changes in behavior are required?

In his article Building a Learning Organization, author David Garvin applies a more pragmatic definition of learning organizations, describing them as “an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights”. According to Garvin, learning organizations are skilled at five main activities.

1. Systematic problem solving: relying on research and data rather than guesswork.
2. Experimentation: testing new approaches
3. Learning from past experience: the concept that knowledge gained from failures is often instrumental in achieving subsequent successes
4. Learning from others: the concept of peer learning, where peers help each other to learn through sharing advice, feedback and thoughtful questions
5. Transferring knowledge: the dissemination of information within an organization through reports, personnel rotation programs and education and training programs

Learning organizations take time to build; the environment must foster openness, communication and allow time for reflection and analysis. Once a more supportive and open environment has been established, leaders can create learning forums poised for knowledge sharing. From there, organizations must put the aforementioned activities into practice and measure initiatives to ensure continuous learning.

Reach out to better understand how we apply learning principles to our method of Interactivity Experience Design.