A learning organization

Not only WinningStance revolves around learning, since the services we offer are training workshops, but we also understand the importance of being “adept at learning”, as Donald Schon (1973) observes about learning societies that need to transform themselves when there are changing circumstances (cited in Smith, 2001). Definitely, this is what makes my organization a learning one. Not only we are immerse in the constant learning that allows us to the transformation that is needed to overcome obstacles, but we also share values and principles that are exhibited in our organization, and are necessary to obtain the desired results. Furthermore, one of our most important values is that every experience is a learning experience. Every mistake, every success, every obstacle that we face or every step we move towards our goals, we consider them as learning experiences, which makes the organization continually growing and progressing.

One practice that we incorporated in our learning systems is to consider and study not only the best practices, that is the actions that result in the desired outcomes, but also the worst practices, that is the actions that result in the wrong or undesired outcomes. We base this concept in the analysis developed by Jim Collins (2001), who studied the difference between the good companies and the best companies in each industry and concluded that only the best companies make learning and analysis of good and bad practices a priority.

We understand that, in order to build a shared vision and achieve our organizational goals, learning is a process that needs to be constantly present in our organization.

References:

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap… and others don’t. New York: Harper Collins. 

Smith, M. K. (2001). The learning organization. The Encyclopedia of Informal Education. Retrieved on May 8, 2009 from http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-organization.htm.