#GuildChat for 08/21/20: The Learning Organization: 30yrs from Senge’s Five Disciplines

#GuildChat returns to Twitter this Friday, August 21st starting at 11am PT / 2pm ET. Our topic is The Learning Organization.

in 1990 Peter Senge published his book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. We are now 30 years removed from this well-read, often quoted book but how much has been applied. Do we have Learning Organizations today? And over thirty years much has changed in areas like management, technology, and even organizational structures.

Join us this week as we look at the five disciplines and how they have or have not impacted organizational learning, the L&D function, and how the L&D function may leverage these ideas to influence the organization itself.

This 3-minute overview might help you revisit the key ideas ahead of our conversation. https://youtu.be/MQMRMAmT2gg

Prospective questions:

Q1 The idea of a learning org goes back to the goal of creating a flexible and nimble company that can respond to and anticipate change. Given we’re going though a time of great change right now, what are you seeing currently as approaches that have helped orgs adapt?

Q2 Building a shared vision of where the organization is going helps everyone to run in the same direction. How is this best done and is there a role in this for L&D?

Q3 It’s easy for people to parrot back a shared company vision. What do you think goes into having them truly buy-in to a stated organizational vision?

Q4 “Mental models” are deeply ingrained assumptions. When these are counter to the organization’s vision, how can we help people remove and realign? Is training useful here?

Q5 The idea of personal mastery involves being in a continual learning mode. What aspects of this can (and should) L&D support and what about this is, generally speaking, out of our hands?

Q6 Team learning, be it in a larger department or a more terminal project team, helps advance a group faster as they collectively come to understand. What are ways L&D can help support this?

Q7 Systems thinking refers to having the ability to see how things can unfold over time and the web of interconnectedness. Why is this so hard for individuals and organizations and what are some ways to encourage this type of thinking?

Q8 Senge’s book talked about 5 disciplines he felt learning orgs all had: personal mastery, mental models, building a shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking. Do you think this holds up 30 years later? If yes, why? If no, why not?