Rethinking Leadership in the Learning Organization

Rethinking Leadership in the Learning Organization

A proclamation by a CEO that “we are going to become a learning organization” will likely be met with collective eye rolling and wonderings of, “What workshop did he attend last week?” Indeed, many employees are so accustomed to these management “initiatives-of-the-month” that seeing any results from such a managerial decree is extremely unlikely.

Another of the main barriers to creating a learning organization, Senge says, is the difference between compliance and commitment. The employees are loath to accept change that starts at the top of the managerial hierarchy. A value is a value only if voluntarily chosen. We cannot force others to learn. Since it is really the individuals that comprise a learning organization, there is no substitute for a personal desire to learn.

Decisions made by managers can also have the effect of paradoxically moving an organization backwards. Downsizing can lead to increased competitiveness, which is a hindrance to productivity. Competitiveness can also undermine collaborative efforts and thereby affect a company’s economic prosperity.

Senge defines three leadership types that he says are essential to building a learning organization:

1. Local line leaders. These are leaders who undertake meaningful experiments to test whether new learning capabilities actually lead to improved business results.

2. Executive leaders. They provide support for line leaders,...