(PHOTO CREDITS: Transparency & Accountability Initiative)
The phrase, “we are a learning organization”, is increasingly becoming popular. Is it just a buzz word or a cliché? What does it really mean to be a learning organisation?
‘’A learning organisation is an organisation skilled at creating, acquiring, interpreting, transferring, and retaining knowledge. Then modifies its behaviour to respond to new knowledge and insights.’’ [1]
From this definition, any organisation purporting to be a learning organisation must first create knowledge. This leads to a critical question – “how can an organisation create knowledge”?
What it takes
At Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), we continue to grapple with not only what it means to be a learning organisation, but also what it takes to be a learning organisation.
It starts with the recognition that learning is continuous. Taking part in Jamboree organised by Open Society Foundations which brings together monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) staff from organisations working in the field of fiscal governance reignited the conversation of how to institutionalise learning at TJNA.
TJNA has found the three building blocks of learning organisation proposed by David A. Garvin, Amy C. Edmondson, and Francesca Gino to be useful; a supportive learning environment, concrete learning processes and practices, and leadership behaviour that provides reinforcement.
How can an organisation achieve supportive learning environment?
An environment that is free from fear and intimidation is safe for learning. The fear of not achieving results and the intimidation that comes from not achieving the results is a barrier to learning.
In most organisations, there is a vigorous process of recruitment that aims at identifying and hiring the best. While this is commendable, sometimes it creates the impression that only the best staff are hired and that they can handle all that pertains to their job description, leaving no room for failure.
