Tuning a Learning Organizational Structure

To survive in the “VUCA” digital era, dynamism consists in being able to break away from being static, and becoming proactive to ever-evolving changes. The more difficult challenge is not just launching successful teams, but maintaining their motivation and focus, tuning an organizational structure and creating a dynamic environment in which learning is the new norm and happens the whole time. Unlike the closed mechanical system, the digital organization keeps growing, generates patterns, tunes organizational structure, initiates business activities, and above all, creates novelty and builds knowledge over time.

Networked structure: Organizations are integral complex systems with all crucial business elements such as people, process, function, structure, and technology, etc. To streamline information flow, and thus business dynamic, the organizational management should make an objective assessment of the business effectiveness, changeability, and maturity: Does management endorse open source knowledge and mindset? Does culture influence growth mindset and learning agility? Generally speaking, flatter or networked structure will help to improve information fluidity, the democratic process will overtake hierarchical controls, and speed up the organizational responses to changing markets. People are ready for moving to a fluid organizational structure. The culture of learning will become a fundamental organizational asset through the impact of information fluidity and digital collaboration technology.

Hybrid structure: We live in a world with a mix of old and new, physical and virtual. Going digital doesn’t mean to just tear down all the old things in the previous era; in reality, digitalization means how to strike the right balance of stability and change, process and creativity, learning and doing. It’s a hybrid, networked, or extended modern working environment, the impact of digital/social technology is right on, provides convenient ways to learn and share. Then, they apply their learning, act, observe the consequences of their actions, make inferences about those consequences, and draw implications for future actions. The hybrid nature of organization has the right mix of virtual social platform with physical functional structure to foster communication, harness learning, empower digital workforce to share thoughts and ideas, engage customers and partners to voice concerns and feedback, encourage broader conversations, enforce cross-functional collaboration within its business ecosystem and social value chain.

Information/knowledge structure: The highly effective digital organization has a higher level of responsiveness because information and knowledge can flow frictionlessly to the right people, allow them to make the right decisions at the right time to bring better results and improve business fluidity. Often, in reality, knowledge management in many organizations are too hierarchical, too centralized for moving with faster speed. Therefore, more attention needs to be placed on the conditions that allow information to flow and generate value rather than try to manipulate or control information. Information and knowledge do not stand still, An effective information & knowledge structure allows the organization to facilitate the transfer of knowledge gained from one place to another. Information has to flow into the company, flow out of it, flow to customers in terms of product or service delivery, There arises an opportunity to analyze and reuse information or knowledge they create as they go about their activities, and from that to generate valuable knowledge that can be shared to help everyone in their work and improve learning agility.

Learning agility at both individual and business level is a differentiated business competency and culture shift, it will directly impact the speed of digital transformation. High organizational learning relates to high response in recognizing and addressing system constraints. Thus, tuning organizational restructure effort should laser focus on long term business vision, talent development and management reinvention, change management. The key is to improve business learning agility and enhance cohesive business capabilities, to ensure the organization is on the journey for reaching the next level of business maturity.

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