Leveraging Systems Thinking for Managing Learning Cycles

High organizational learning relates to high response in recognizing and addressing system constraints, adapt to the ever-changing environment. 

With the increasing pace of changes and cutting throat competitions, to effectively respond to the digital dynamics, either individually or collectively, continuous learning becomes an important skill for skill building and prerequisite of developing changeability. Either individually or collectively, we can define learning through the knowledge it builds, and the capability it develops. Organizations are learning through individuals and teams because businesses and their teams are made up by human beings. In fact, leading strategists were arguing that the only sustainable advantage was to learn faster than your competition and unleash your full digital potential. But more specifically, how to leverage Systems Thinking for developing learning practices and managing learning cycles systematically?

Learn-act-improve: With the exponential growth of data and the mixed bag of new information and outdated knowledge, digital organizations and their people must learn through their interactions with the business environment continually. People who are learning agile can self-reflect and self-manage, they are self-driven with an insatiable curiosity to learn-act-improve. Learning agility at both the individual and business level is a differentiated digital competency and the organizational culture shift. It will directly impact the speed of the digital transformation. High organizational learning relates to high response in recognizing and addressing system constraints. A learning organization is the one in which leaders encourage learning-acting- improving as an iterative business continuum. People apply their learning, act, observe the consequences of their actions, make inferences about those consequences, and draw implications for future actions.

Learn-think-create: Learning something to gain knowledge often starts with the content study; to deepen understanding, you should think deeper and capture contextual knowledge to get insight. Insight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context. Knowledge can be taught, but insight is a unique perception which needs to be gained by each individual. By having an active learning and thinking cycle, over time, you develop an effective set of filters that help you find new information interests you and refine them into valuable insight. Then, to move up the next stage of learning cycle, generative learning allows people opening to new ideas, co-creating fresh knowledge, experimenting with alternative ways of doing things and connecting interdisciplinary dots to sparking creativity. In present days, we cannot separate knowledge and creativity if we want to stay competitive on the market. Continuous learning needs to become a great habit and lifestyle.

Learn-share-relearn: To quote Peter Drucker, knowledge is the most valuable commodity. It couldn’t be truer in the digital era. On one hand, the fresh knowledge can be captured from the abundance of information; on the other hand, it doesn’t take long for that knowledge to become a commodity once the market is exposed to it. To keep knowledge update, people should think of knowledge sharing as something they gain, rather than lose. Knowledge workers with intrinsic motivation like to share their knowledge to learn more by themselves. Most of the time, they are also perfectly able to find a balance between sharing knowledge and ensuring sharing knowledge will not become a goal in itself. With the exponential growth of information and shortened knowledge cycle, top seasoned leaders or high professionals become aware when some of the long-acquired knowledge is no longer applicable in certain situations. You have learned to no longer apply that knowledge in those specific cases, and then, relearn the updated knowledge for gaining insight on the changing circumstance. In fact, the digital workforce today has to learn and relearn all the time and then, apply those lessons to succeed in new situations, foster innovation, and drive digital transformation.

In the digital age, knowledge is dynamic and multidimensional. It’s not just spoken or transferred in hard-copy, it’s also transferred visually and through emotions or feelings. Learning and doing are an iterative continuum, to ensure the organization knows the tasks and knowledge required to sustain itself and create an environment and business systems to support those tasks being done and build the organizational competency. High organizational learning relates to high response in recognizing and addressing system constraints, adapt to the ever-changing environment and evolve in an ideal world to improved levels of form, function, and prosperity.

Posted in: Learning,Systems Wisdom