The Learning Organization (Vision, Mission and Objectives)
Peter Senge (I 990) first floated the concept of the learning organisation.
According
to him learning organizations are:
". . .organisations 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."
The basic rationale for such organizations is that in situations of rapid change, only
those that are flexible, adaptive and productive will excel. For this to happen,
organizations need to 'discover how to tap people's commitment and capacity to
learn at all levels.
Components of a Learning Organisation
The dimension that distinguishes learning from more traditional organizations is the
mastery of certain basic disciplines or 'component technologies'.
The five disciplines
that Peter Senge identifies as crucial to learning organizations are:
- a Systems thinking
- a Personal mastery
- a Mental models
- a Building shared vision
- a Team learning
1. Systems thinking - the cornerstone of the learning organisation.
Systemic thinking is the conceptual cornerstone of the learning organisation. It is
the discipline that integrates the others, fusing them into a coherent body of theory
and practice.
The School as a System
Systems thinking as applied to school would be considering the school a system,
rather than the sum of separate parts.
This is perhaps the most important difference and must be understood by all the
people involved. Administrators, teachers, students, support staff, parents, and
community members all have a stake in how the school operates, and so to maximize
the performance, they must all be a part of the decision-making, the direction(s) in
which the school will move. The systems approach to running a school allows all
access to the great amount of knowledge that is spread across the various groups.
Administrators have knowledge of ideas, facts and patterns that teachers, students,
parents, community, and support staff do not have. Teachers have knowledge that
comes from their work in the organization, knowledge that is unique to their position.
Each of the groups can see the school and its work ib a different way from the
others; each group has unique insight into the school, and thus something to contribute
to the whole. In the systems view of the school, the decision-making is spread
across the groups only after all sides, thoughts, relative knowledge and insights
have been thoroughly discussed. A school that is a Learning Organisation would
have built-in time for the interaction and dialogue between all the groups allowing
for this.
2. Personal mastery
Organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not
guarantee organizational learning. But without it, no organizational learning can
occur.(Senge 1990: 139). Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying
- and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, developing patience,
and of seeing reality objectively. It goes beyond competence and skills, although it
involves them. It goes beyond the spiritual opening, although it involves spiritual growth.
But personal mastery is not
something you possess. It is a process. It is a lifelong discipline. People with a high
level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence,
their growth areas. And they are deeply self-confident.
The discipline entails
- developing personal vision;
- holding creative tension - managing the gap between our vision and reality;
- recognizing structural tensions, and constraints,
- and our own power (or lack of it) /with regard to them;
- commitment to truth;
- and using the sub-conscious.
Personal Mastery in Schools
Learning organizations can only grow and learn so long ad individuals involved grow
and learn. A key trait of the LO school is that the continued growth and learning of
each individual is given a very high priority. This means ALL the people and not just the students. This growth needs to be encouraged and fostered by the school,
Organisation but its shape and direction must be up to the individual.
3. Mental models
These are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures and
images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action.
Personal mental models describe what people can or cannot detect.
Due to selective observation, mental models might limit peoples’ observations.
To become a learning organization, these models must be identified and challenged. Individuals tend to espouse theories, which are what they intend to follow, and theories-in-use, which are what they actually do.
Similarly, organizations tend to have 'memories' that preserve certain behaviours, norms and values. In creating a learning environment it is important to replace confrontational attitudes with an open culture that promotes inquiry and trust. To achieve this, the learning organization needs mechanisms for locating and assessing organizational theories of action. Unwanted values need to be discarded in a process called 'unlearning'.Wang and Ahmed refer to this as 'triple loop learning'. For organizations, problems arise when mental models evolve beneath the level of awareness. Thus it is important to examine issues and actively question current practices and new skills before they become integrated into new practices.
Mental Models in Schools
~
The LO(learning organisation) school has the ability to imagine the school, learning, work, the roles of the
members in ways that are beyond what someone else has handed down to them.
The ability (time and encouragement) of the members to dialogue about the nature
of learning, schooling, gives them a chance to evolve continually more satisfying
and useful ways of seeing the school, its purpose and direction.
Let us examine the discipline of mental models with example.
Usually, teachers
and school leaders have preconceived notions about a non-achieving student. The
mental model is one of a lazy, academically non-interactive, tardy, socially disruptive
pupil. A process of inquiry will reveal the following dimensions of how the mental
model was formed. S/he has not turned in homework more often than not and does
not participate in classwork. This has lead to perceptions of the pupil being tardy
and so unable to interact with higher levels of knowledge being discussed in the
classroom. So the teacher stops asking him/her questions in the classroom and
progressively expects less and less of the pupil. The pupil tends therefore to satisfy
his/her instincts to socialize through disruptive behaviour. Now, using the process of
advocacy the teachers will seek to be influenced by others' thoughts which would
help them change this destructive mental model. They would be willing to register
the data, which will tell them about why the student does not turn in homework on
time. This might reveal anything between the pupil n@t having learnt in class the
basics necessary for him/her to do homework effectively, or the lack of support
systems at home that will ensure that the pupil gets d~wn to doing homework to
learning disability problems, which could be deemed him/her from doing homework.
Immediately the perception about the erring pupil changes and this leads to a series
of actions, which changes the mental model and provides the pupil empowering
experiences in the classroom.
4. Building shared vision
Peter Senge starts from the position that if anyone idea about leadership has inspired
organizations for thousands of years, it's the capacity to hold a shared picture of
the future that the people of an organization seeking to create. Such a vision has the
power to be uplifting - and to encourage experimentation and innovation. Crucially,
it is argued, it can also foster a sense of the long-term, something that is fundamental
to the 'fifth discipline' - systems thinking.
When there is a genuine vision (as opposed to the all-to-familiar 'vision statement'),
people excel and learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to.
Visions spread because of a reinforcing process. Increased clarity, enthusiasm and
commitment rub off on others in the organization. As people talk, the vision grows
clearer. As it gets clearer, enthusiasm for its benefits grows.
Shared vision in schools
The school that is a LO has a vision that is not mandated by a few but rather
generated by all the members. For example, the current rage is the standards
movement, a vision that did not come from the school. It was imposed on education
from outside, and then administrators and a few others took up the flag. Because it
didn't come from the schools, that is the administration, the faculty, the students, the
support staff, the parents AND the community, it is not a true vision. It will affect
no meaningful change and will be gone in a few years, leaving a chart here, a
database there, and a good deal of cynicism in its wake.
5. Team learning
The discipline of team learning starts with 'dialogue', the capacity of members of a
team to suspend assumptions and enter into a genuine 'thinking together'.
To the
Greeks dia-logos meant a free-flowing of meaning through a group, allowing the
group to discover insights not attainable individually. It dso involves learning how to
recognize the patterns of interaction in teams that undermine learning.
The Learning in Schools
The school that is a LO makes time and money available for learning by groups of
I its members. Helping the members learn to work together is something that the ' school sees as critical for its own well-being and growth. These shared learning
experiences provide time for the members to get to know one another, to understand
each other in ways that do not happen outside of the school day. They build the shared vision that is needed to define the LO school.