How Would This Programme Work For Me?

ANTICIPATED LEARNING

The programmes place a strong emphasis on the core competencies of a Learning Organization.

Participants spend significant amount of time understanding the framework and the vast expansive set of coherent tools of Learning Organization by Peter Senge built on the foundational works of Action Science by Chris Argyris.

Much of the learning happens as a result of an immersive experience as well as the interplay of personal and interpersonal works.  The process will allow the paricipant gain the following:

  1. Initial competence with a systems perspective
  2. Initial competence with conversations that promote learning
  3. Explore living life from a creative orientation
  4. Become part of a learning community
  5. Integrate learning into life


WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

This programme (refer to full programme) is intended for:

  • Anyone committed to deepening their capacity for courageous leadership and change,
  • Particularly those in senior positions or tasked with developing strategies for their organization at sectoral, national, regional and global development.
  • Participants should have at minimum ten, but ideally fifteen to twenty years of managerial experience.  This allows participants relate to organizational contexts that will provide a much deeper understanding of the concepts and acquire an appreciation of the need for the practice of the five disciplines, all on their own.
  • Management teams  are encouraged to attend as a team that will enable them to develop their collective leadership.


PROGRAMME OUTCOME?

The programme assist the participant build their capacity to develop sectoral and national systemic strategies (Applied Learning) as well as build Learning Organizations.

DEVELOPING NATIONAL SYSTEMIC STRATEGIES

The paricipant is ready now to undertake a ten-step action plan to wards reaching the above objective.  These ten steps involve:

  1. Assist participants understand what a stubborn problem is.
  2. Identify and choose in collaboration with their principals an issue they have noticed persists at sectoral / nationwide levels despite efforts to change its course.  For example, in the case of MoA (Agriculture) Level of Crop as opposed to productivity (which can be a topic undertaken by DPSM, for example).
  3. Identify factors of the problem that require data collection.
  4. Locate and populate the data for all of the factors (at this stage, participants should have completed Module 2 at this stage).
  5. Recognize relevant Behaviour over Time graphs (BOTs) that is linked to the issue.
  6. Uncover both direct and indirect archetypes (based on the Onion) and look again for relevant data till the “Onion” is complete.
  7. Identify possible leverage action areas based on Law #8.  Conduct tests and develop monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems to test the findings.
  8. Listen further to presentations made by others Ministries of similar works.
  9. Recommend and then present national systemic approaches, both to their principals and at a later stage with affected stakeholders (at this point they would need to collect data beyond from their own Ministry and include the voters).  Identify and incorporate suitable indicators for finalizing the M&E system.
  10. Monitor and review Steps 3 to 9 as desired, till we see a turnaround in the persistence of the issue.

BUILDING THE ARCHITECTURE OF A LEARNING ORGANIZATION

In addition the participant becomes keenly aware of what it takes to build a Learning Organization,

Building learning organizations requires more than just “re-engineering” our existing structures.  It requires a whole new vision of what organizations can become and a new basis of understanding from which to imagine fresh possibilities.

Margaret Wheatley and Peter Senge, keynote speakers at the 1993 Systems Thinking in Action Conference, each articulated their vision for this emerging concept of the Learning Organization.  What we mean by architecture is what you actually try to build.

Dr Senge suggests three dimensions of this architecture: Guiding Ideas; Theory, Tools, and Methods; and Innovations in Infrastructure.  Excerpts of their talks appear on the following pages: https://thesystemsthinker.com/the-learning-organization-from-vision-to-reality/