Learning Organization - Creating a Learning Organization and Leading it

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Knowledge economy, teamwork, Top management, learning, study, practise, I learned something, Jack Welch, Boston Celtics

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Principles of Learning Organization Contd...

• Faster is slower

Our culture glorifies fast growth and looks down upon slow growth. This can be wrong. Look at what happened to "People express" of the US. "People express" was offering the same proposition what Southwest is offering today. It was offering same low-price, no frills, good quality service, people friendly management. Why then Southwest shines like a star, when People express disappeared from skies? People express created demand that far beyond its ability to offer quality service. It surely had physical infrastructure, but it could not cultivate the necessary attitude in people as quickly as it created demand. As a result, quality of service dunked and only price sensitive customers were flying airline. This was not economical and the airline was grounded. This is the precise reason why Southwest is expanding slowly and cautiously. In a service organization, attitude of employees is a crucial factor. Recruiting right people, and cultivating the attitude is slowing the growth of Southwest. But it is being built to last, slowly and steadily.

• Cause and effect need not be closely related in time and space.
We are brought in such a way that we see effect immediately following cause. If a child does not do well in the exam, it is concluded that he did not study well for the exam. But the reasons can perhaps go till the parent's education as a child. ad the parent studied hard, he might have been able to teach his child, and inculcate the same hardworking attitude in his child as well. In this case, it is parent's childhood preparation which is influencing child's education. But we hardly accept such valid explanations. In organizations, if there is problem in manufacturing, managers point the finger at manufacturing. But not on over promises made by sales people. When sales people cannot meet their targets, managers try to motivate them by giving incentives. The real problem can be in the defective design of the product that was designed in the previous decade. Faulty design is the cause here, declining sales is the effect. There can be a gap of many years between these two. But hardly do organizations think on these lines.

• Possibility of "and"
Organizations in 1970s assumed that it is impossible to produce a high quality product at low costs. They assumed that higher quality products need longer assembly times, more expensive materials & components, and more expensive quality controls. And concluded that keeping all these would increase cost of manufacturing. But they overlooked that improvements in work processes can minimize rework, dispense with quality inspectors, minimize customer complaints, reduce warranty costs, increase customer loyalty, and reduce advertising & sales promotions while increasing the quality of product. Japanese realized this far before Americans and took full advantage of it. Organizations must accept the possibility: apparently contradictory goals may be contradictory only in perceptions.

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