How to become a learning organization

We hear a lot about "learning organizations", but can an organization really learn? Is learning something that organizations do? Wikipedia tells us that learning is "one of the most important mental functions of humans, animals and artificial cognitive systems", but organizations aren’t humans, they aren’t animals and they aren’t artificial cognitive systems.

Unlike animals, organizations have no brains, so what do they use to learn?
This is the perplexing philosophical and semantic conundrum with which Nick Milton, director and co-founder of KM consultancy Knoco, will grapple in the forthcoming September/October issue of KM Review.

In his article, "Can organizations learn?", Milton expounds his own theory: that organizations can indeed learn, above and beyond the sum of individual learning. "Teams can learn, communities can learn, functions and projects can learn, just as an individual can learn," he says.

Becoming a "learning organization" is a three-step process, he says.

• Step 1: Knowing what we don’t know
  A smart organization needs to know what it doesn’t know, before it can develop a plan to fill the knowledge gap.
  
  
• Step 2: Filling the knowledge gap
  Once a team or an organization becomes conscious of a knowledge gap, it needs to start putting in place strategies and plans to fill that gap. There are many ways to approach this, and there are many KM tools and processes that can help, as Milton discusses.
  
  
• Step 3: Becoming "unconscious" again
  This process is a by-product of embedding new knowledge into standards, processes and procedures, Milton explains. "When this occurs, teams and individuals in the business don't need to seek back through lessons learned, and don’t need to set up peer assists, they just 'follow the procedure'," he says.

Best regards,
Jessica Twentyman
Editor
jessica.twentyman@melcrum.com

Gartner Portals, Content & Collaboration Summit 2008, 10-11 September 2008.

The Gartner Portals, Content & Collaboration Summit 2008 will explore new ways to access, search, structure, and manage information, and improve your organization's productivity and efficiency through collaboration. Taking place on 10-11 September 2008 in London, the Summit will bring together a leading-edge group of Gartner analysts, keynote presenters, and industry experts for more than 30 in-depth sessions focused on the practical uses of recent innovations, new best practices, and the latest independent research. 

We are delighted to offer KM Review readers a discount of 25% on the standard conference rate, simply register using the code MP-PCCE1.  

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