To survive, organisations of all kinds
must change their thinking.
In 1999, Peter M. Senge was named a ‘Strategist of the Century’
by the Journal of Business Strategy, one of 24 men and women
who have ‘had the greatest impact on the way we conduct
business today’. Senge is a great proponent of what is described
as ‘organisational learning’.
Many consultants and organisations have recognised the
commercial significance of organizational learning and have
sought to introduce theories and methodologies that might
help organisations evolve in order to be able to respond to the
various pressures they face.
The emergence of the idea of the ‘learning organisation’ is
wrapped up with the notion of ‘the learning society’.
The increasingly rapid rate of change that we
are experiencing means that our society and all
of its institutions are in continuous processes of
transformation. We cannot expect new stable
conditions that will endure for our own lifetimes.
We must learn to understand, guide, influence and manage
these transformations. In other words, we need to become adept
at learning. We must become able not only to transform our
institutions in response to changing situations and requirements;
we must invent and develop institutions which are ‘learning
systems’, that is to say, systems capable of bringing about their
own continuing transformation.
As an NGO or NPO, if you don not believe productivity and
competitiveness are essential to your survival, you are making a
big mistake. The number of organisations competing for funding
from a pie that is growing far more slowly that the funding need
means an increasing number of organisations are experiencing
a reduction, or sometimes even a end, of support.
A failure to attend to the learning of groups and individuals in
the organisation spells disaster in this increasingly complex
environment. As Leadbeater has argued, organisations need to
invest not just in more efficient service delivery, but in the flow of
know-how that will sustain the organisation.1
The learning organisation
There are essentially three types of Learning Organisation:
• Those 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 to see the whole together.2
• Those where the Learning Company is a vision of what
might be possible. It is not brought about simply by training
individuals; it can only happen as a result of learning at
the whole organisation level. A Learning Company is an
organisation that facilitates the learning of all its members
and continuously transforms itself. 3
• Those that are characterised by total employee involvement
in a process of collaboratively conducted, collectively
accountable change directed towards shared values or
principles. 4
The following characteristics appear in some form in the more
popular conceptions. Learning organisations:
• Provide continuous learning opportunities.
• Use learning to reach their goals.
• Link individual performance with organisational performance.
• Foster inquiry and dialogue, making it safe for people to
share openly and take risks.
• Embrace creative tension as a source of energy and renewal.
Are continuously aware of and interact with their environment.
A fairly radical change of mindset is needed for many Non-Profit
organisations beginning with the idea that non-profit does not
mean non-income. In order to survive and grow, NPOs must think
creatively about how to generate income as