Allgemein

What does my organization need in order to learn?

Lear­ning Orga­niza­ti­ons” (LO) are orga­niza­ti­ons in moti­on, crea­tively adap­ting to chan­ging envi­ron­ments. They under­stand that the deve­lo­p­ment of their staff and teams crea­tes the basis for their suc­cess as orga­niza­ti­ons, no mat­ter whe­ther they are a muni­ci­pal admi­nis­tra­ti­on, a fac­to­ry that pro­du­ces metal parts, or a hotel. 

One fac­tor that is indis­pensable for LO is to stop see­ing human error as flaw that bet­ter be cover­ed up. Wit­hout errors and mista­kes the­re will not be pro­gress. Orga­niza­ti­ons should, in my view, do all they can to redu­ce the fear of making mista­kes among their staff, kno­wing that workers who con­tri­bu­te a lot will soo­ner or later make mista­kes. The only way for me to not make mista­kes – if at all pos­si­ble – is to fol­low the same work rou­ti­ne over and over like a machi­ne. Lucki­ly, this kind of job (whe­re what you do might as well be done by a machi­ne) has been dying out in our socie­ties for quite some time. 

How do you crea­te favorable con­di­ti­ons for lear­ning in your orga­ni­sa­ti­on? Brain rese­arch points to a com­bi­na­ti­on and inter­de­pen­dence of cogni­ti­on and emo­ti­ons in suc­cessful lear­ning. Only whe­re I can do some­thing with joy and exci­te­ment will my brain deve­lop new capa­ci­ties. That is why all orga­niza­ti­ons face the chall­enge to crea­te oppor­tu­ni­ties for their staff to work and learn with plea­su­re and exci­te­ment. This may mean for staff to chan­ge their tasks every now and then. Or to crea­te space for trai­nings that allow per­so­nal growth (even if at a first glan­ce the­re is no con­nec­tion to the work that peo­p­le do). Or it may mean to rely more on self-orga­niza­ti­on. The­re are as many pos­si­ble ways to inspi­re joy and lear­ning at your work­places as the­re are dif­fe­rent organizations.