The learning organisation

When people feel their contribution is valued and meaningful, they’ll leap ahead—and take the organisation with them.

There’s a whole field of academic study devoted to Organisational Learning. Too often, though, it’s seen as just that—academic, with precious little traction in the trenches. Worse, it’s considered only as a facet of HR, with lip service paid through occasional teambuilding.

But if innovation is the ability to turn knowledge into additional value and wealth, then how quickly you create value depends on how quickly people within your organisation learn. Their ability to integrate new knowledge to their work, or apply old knowledge in new ways, will have a profound effect on your results. This makes organisational learning anything but academic. It becomes a vital part of developing the capability in your team.

Systems thinking: The Fifth Discipline

A core influence on the Ensemble Way is Peter Senge, systems scientist and founder of the Society of Organizational Learning. His classic book The Fifth Discipline has inspired genuine transformation for almost three decades.

Personal mastery. The desire for improvement drives high achievers and is a perpetual dance of being and becoming.

Shared vision. Developed by sharing personal visions rather than imposed from the senior team, or external consultants. Our role is purely to facilitate.

Team learning. Its essence resides in dialogue, when we suspend our assumptions, let down our defences and listen with head and heart to another.

Mental models. We are what we think. How we process the world influences the decisions we make. The Ensemble Way in itself is a mental model.

Systems thinking. Seeing the parts only insofar as they relate to the whole and giving the whole primacy. This ‘fifth discipline’ binds all the others together.

Senge’s thinking is a powerful ally to the more mathematically based focus of Eli Goldratt. His view of learning, including his systems archetypes, has become ingrained with our own approach to organisations and projects.

The Ensemble Way seeks a deep understanding of your culture, the mindsets and behaviours informing them, and the conduciveness of your organisational structure to learning. Through our services, you’ll also develop effective cross-functional relationships to bring the whole strategic plan into being.

Additionally, when we move away from seeing the people we work with as mere objects on an organisational chart, or cost items in a spreadsheet, we have taken a bold step. Our colleagues can become a genuine team, bringing their full experience and inspiration to work. Help your people learn individually—and as a team—and the passion will take care of itself.

Let’s talk about how team learning can boost your bottom line.
get in touch today for a free consultation.