In LO 7736, Margie Mulligan discusses measuring the Learning Organization.
She references a 1993 HBR article by David Garvin proposing three
measures... Margie writes..
> I just read an old HBR article by David A. Garvin entitled "Building a
> Learning Organization" [July-August 1993]. In his article, he proposed
> three measures of organizational learning:
>
> * learning curves
> * manufacturing progress functions
> * half-life curves
>
> He (Garvin) also mentions surveys and observation (auditing behavior).
>
> But, the first three intrigue me because they go beyond measuring
> cognitive and behavior change to measuring performance improvement as
> his metric for learning. That definition matches mine...
I'd pose that if we are to measure the learning organanization there are
very complex measures to discover. Many of our present available
instruments might be combined to give us the needed perspective. Learning
histories, audits, team profiles, organization assessments, etc. Measures
might cover sustainability, breadth of learning across the organization,
individual change, impact on long-term,
Some of the questions which come to mind in a stream of consciousness are:
Is the learning habit built-in for the long-term? Is the pattern of
learning gaining sophistication as years progress?
How do individuals change their habits and behaviors? What are the habits
and behaviors to be changed? Are the new behaviors the same across many
organizations or unique to each culture?
What are the dynamics in the team learning domain? Productive
conversations, dialogue, debate, extensive use of knowledge databases,
ultra-high performance teams (no coaching needed?), flexibility,
adaptibility, creativity, energy, focus, fun are some words which sound
right to me. Is there any way to measure this?
Why does the organization value learning? Where is the impact felt -
bottom line, customers, employees, communities, stockholders, environment,
resource usage? Do employees who work in a learning organization have a
better family life? Do they live longer? Are their offspring less likely
to use drugs? Commit crimes? More likely to want to be lifelong
learners?
How does the change to becoming better at being a learning organization
impact wealth distribution within the organiztion? Does it? If it
doesn't, is it sustainable at a high level?
And on and on. My interest in these kinds of measurements is the
long-term. We can create organizations which don't make better
communities. We can create organizations which continue to feel no
responsibility to the employees, communities, the environment. How about
a learning organization which helps in every way? How do we measure it?
Take care and have a great day!!
Dave Buffenbarger
Organization Improvement Coach
Dow Chemical Company
dwbuff@pop3.cris.com
(517) 839-0324
--Dave Buffenbarger <dwbuff@cris.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>