The Brain Analogy: -
Danah Zohar in her book "Re-wiring the Corporate Brain" uses the workings of the brain to draw parallels with the working of organisations. The brain has billions of cells and the intelligence/knowledge is a function of all the neural connections between the cells. It is not the ability of each cell that determines intelligence but all the connections. The analogy with organisations is that it is not so much the talent of each individual that determines its capability but how effectively all the thinking units are interconnected.
And this would lead us onto to ask about intelligence, memory and learning. The connections in the brain provide knowledge and memory and new knowledge comes from developing new connections. Can we say the same for organisations? Furthermore does an organisation have a memory as characterised by its existing structures and culture?
Organisations certainly continue to exist beyond the individuals who make up the enterprise. Once we retire, move on, or pass away, the organisation continues to function; be it a school, a sports club, a large company, a small company, a public body or the civil service. The organisation will have evolved a culture, it has knowledge and it has a learning capability. It can be comfortable or uncomfortable with change. Its long term health is determined by how well it learns from the market and how well it captures the knowledge of its people.
Individual vs Organisational Learning
In the consideration of future development we would therefore identify two constraints -The skill and knowledge of the individual and the capability of the organisation - with its interconnections - to use that skill.
What we do find is that more often that not the knowledge, skills and creativity of the individual is greater than the organisation's ability to use those skills. So we propose that the real opportunity of the future lies in the learning of the organisation - as apart from the learning of the individual. The Knowledge of the organisation rather than capital is set to dominate future markets.
The Challenge of Organisational Learning
We look at the challenge under three headings:
Organisations move forward only when all three aspects of learning are addressed.
Knowledge - what should we learn?
Our perspective on management is that it is a highly challenging endeavour, which deserves more support from scientists and thinkers of our society. Too often managers are left up to their own devices. Common sense is regarded as sufficient. That woefully underestimates the intellectual task of managing organisations.
Human organisations are complex systems, far more involved and difficult to describe- let alone control - than say engineering systems. Engineers are taught theory before they require to practice. More often than not, managers are told to practice with scant regard for underpinning theory
The fundamental recognition is that knowledge is based on theory - theories that have been developed and tested through diligent research. And that theories guide our thinking in the development of methods - which provide the results. There is an inter-relationship.
| Theories | lead to | Methods | lead to | Results, |
This argument in the context of management is development more fully in the paper The Crux of the Challenge. It is not a new theme, to quote Prof. Douglas McGregor (1960) from his famous book "The Human Side of Enterprise"
"The theoretical assumptions management holds about controlling its human resource determines the whole character of the enterprise"
W Edwards Deming similarly contended that:
"Experience alone, without theory, teaches management nothing"
We develop our knowledge when we take time to identify and challenge the underlying theories that form the basis of our thinking.
For example we can think that within an organisation it is the people and their diligence that are the main variable, if so we focus on such methods as appraisals, accountability, rewards, competition. It is when we are prepared to challenge this basic assumption that we will hear the systems thinkers say that it is the design of systems that are the main variable. When this occurs our attention moves to systems design, processes, flowmaps, internal customers etc.
There is a vast amount of literature supported by research that challenges our basic theorteical assumptions.
Learning - how do we learn?
In the context of the individual we are beginning to understand how the brain works and how its thinking patterns are dominated by fixed mindsets or paradigms.
We hold many assumptions in our heads – ways of explaining to ourselves what happens and why, how people behave and how organisations work or why they don’t. We use these assumptions to structure our organisations and develop our methods. When our assumptions are out of date we are left with processes that fail to deliver.
Our assumptions can be wrong more often than we think because experience is an unreliable teacher. Some assumptions were always wrong. The world was never flat. Some started right and went out of date because reality changed.
Inaccurate assumptions are acutely disabling because they are invisible to us. If something unexpected happens we easily attribute it to the circumstances in a way that leaves our assumption intact if not reinforced. We are particularly ready to blame the stupidity of others. Satisfied with our explanation to ourselves, we do not look for errors in our own thinking.
We are also beginning to appreciate how slowly we learn, and how inefficient is the classical lecture mode of teaching. Even examples of good practice rarely transform the thinking of managers.
There is also the recognition that we can be at different stages in the learning process. i.e.
There is immense scope for the consideration of how organisations and individuals learn.
Application - How do we apply the learning?
And the third component is the challenge of applying the knowledge and learning - how do we create an organisation that is continually learning. How do we convert that knowledge and learning into enhanced profit, morale and customer service for the organisation? Knowledge only becomes enriching when it is applied.
The paper A Practical Change Programme represents a view of a possible programme to achieve continual and dynamic improvement.
But each circumstance is different there are no "off the shelf " answers or standards for application. Much has been written and many examples have been documented. But at the end of the day each organisation has to devise its own implementation strategy.