Organisational Learning

Organisational Change Organisational Evolution Organisational Synergy

In organisations, people will always learn. They may not be learning what you would like them to learn, however they are always using their natural human ability to gather, process and store sensory information. We cannot not act, and we cannot not learn. It's what we were designed to do.

You may think that some people don't want to learn, what is more often the case is that they don't want to waste time on training courses, learning what they already know in a way that is poorly suited to today's learning needs. We are all gathering information every moment of every day and using it to form our ongoing experience. This experience contains valuable information that your organisation needs to survive, yet it isn't written down in any handbook or policy document.

We traditionally classify organisational knowledge into two types: that which can be written down and taught, and that which is acquired through experience or trial and error. The first type is often called explicit knowledge and the second type tacit knowledge.

We might, more naturally, describe for these two types of learning as skills and talents. Skills are taught using traditional training methods. Talents are taught using more advanced, behavioural learning methods. Both are necessary to deliver integrated organisational learning.

Many people think that talents are born, not bred. Leaders, musicians, engineers and designers have some special, hidden secret that enables them to do what they do so well. People born without the talent can learn it to a degree but will never master it.

We know from many years of research and real life that this is simply not the case. Talents can be learned and taught just like skills. The difference is the process by which talents are modelled from talented people and then taught to the learners.

Many organisations say "people are our greatest asset". What they often mean is "knowledge is our greatest asset, but we think it's locked in people's heads". Failing to recognise the value of this information leads inevitably to inefficiency, high staff turnover and constant reinvention of the wheels that drive your business.

At Communications In Action, we use the very latest personal development technologies to access and share talent within your organisation. We help your business become more effective and successful by separating knowledge from people, allowing anyone to access those vital skills that keep your business running effectively.

Different learning methods can be used to transfer knowledge in different ways.

Teaching	Skill	Skill	Modelling
Skill			Talent
Skill			Talent
Coaching	Talent	Talent	Mentoring

So, to take a talent out of an expert's head and teach it to someone else as a skill so that they have conscious knowledge of it, the process of modelling is used. To take a conscious skill and refine it to the unconscious level of mastery that characterises a talent, the process of coaching is used.

Each of these learning methods integrates seamlessly into a single approach for powerful, enriching, organisational learning. As an ongoing process, the four methods integrate well and enable true organisational learning.

Starting with leaders, entrepreneurs and people with outstanding, intuitive talents, mentoring is the traditional learning mechanism adopted. We model the talents of these people and develop it into a skill that can be taught to other people. By coaching these people to develop their skills to a high degree of ability and performance, we're back into the area of mentoring.

You may have heard some companies fashionably described as "learning organisations" because they have libraries, training budgets and IIP programs. In fact, there are no learning organisations. There are only learning people, and when those people are working towards a common purpose in an environment that permits creativity and experimentation, the result is an organisation with high motivation, high intellectual challenge, high performance and high levels of tacit knowledge transfer - or learning, as we laymen might say.

Organisational learning isn't something you do once. It's part of the way your business operates. It's the mechanism by which your business evolves. It's the way your business succeeds in the long term.