This document discusses building learning organizations. It identifies five strategic building blocks for learning organizations: 1) clarity and support for mission/vision, 2) shared leadership and involvement, 3) a culture that encourages experimentation, 4) ability to transfer knowledge across boundaries, and 5) teamwork and cooperation. It also discusses two supportive foundations: organizational design that is organic and decentralized, and emphasis on employee training and skill development. The document notes challenges in building learning organizations, particularly effective knowledge transfer, and designing assessment tools to measure their competitive advantages and ROI.

1. “Toward a Learning Organization”:
The strategic Building Blocks
By: Swee C. Goh
University of Ottawa
1998

2. Introduction
• What is a learning organization
• How to become a learning organization
• What are the payoffs of becoming a learning
organizations.
• What should I do to encourage learning organization
• How I know my organization is a learning
organization.
• What are the characteristics of learning organizations,
how to sustain one

3. The Learning Organization
• Learning Organizations is the term given to a
company that facilitates the learning of its members
and continuously transforms itself.
• Learning organization Is an organization skilled at
creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, and
modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and
insights (Garvin, 1993).
• Organizational Learning is a long term activity that
will build competitive advantage over time and
requires sustain management attention,
commitment and effort.

4. Building Learning Organizations
• There are essential and strategic role of the leaders on
the organization to develop the learning organization
process .
• Identify a bundle of managerial practices and
organizational process that differentiate these learning
companies .
• Set a Five strategic building blocks
• Apply two Supportive organization design

5. Learning Organizations Five Building Blocks
1- Clarity and Support for Mission and Vision
2- Shared Leadership and Involvement
3- A culture that Encourages Experimentation
4- Ability to Transfer Knowledge across Organizational
Boundaries .
5- Teamwork and Cooperation .

6. Strategic Architecture of a Learning
Organization
Clarity and Support for Mission/vision
Teamwork
&
Cooperation
Transfer of
knowledge
Shared
Leadership &
Involvement
An Experimenting
Organizational Culture
Supportive
Organization
Design/Structure
Employee Competencies &
Knowledge Acquisition

7. Supporting Foundation
1- Organizational Design : The organization structure of
learning organizations has been described in the literature as
organic, flat, and decentralized, with a minimum of formalized
procedures in the work environment.
2- Employee Skills and Development: The literature on
learning organizations frequently asserts that these
organizations strongly emphasize the training and skill
development of their employees.

8. Measurement and Intervention
- Organization have to De-liberate interventions in
the organization design, and required to apply
appropriate training and skill development program
to reinforce employee learning.
- A Measurement process to diagnose the new
organizational archetype on applying the five
building blocks and the two foundations.
- Assessing and evaluating the current organization
design and skill development program.
- Organization must Determine whether overall
learning capability has also improved.

9. Challenges
- Many of the early discussions about learning
organizations were paeans to a better world rather
than concrete prescriptions.
- Effective knowledge transfer seems to be the most
problematic and difficult (Goh, 2002)
- Difficulties to design assessment tools .
- How we can present the competitive advantage of
the learning organization?
- How we can measure the ROI?

10. Thank you
Youchaa Khodr
Email:ykhodr@academia-lb.com