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Is Yours a Learning
Organization?
by David A. Garvin, Amy C. Edmondson, and
Francesca Gino
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Included with this full-text
Harvard Business Review
article:
The Idea in Brief—the core idea
The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work
1
Article Summary
2
Is Yours a Learning Organization?
A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further
exploration of the article’s ideas and applications
10
Further Reading
Using this assessment tool,
companies can pinpoint areas
where they need to foster
knowledge sharing, idea
development, learning from
mistakes, and holistic
thinking.
Reprint R0803H
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Is Yours a Learning Organization?
page 1
The Idea in Brief The Idea in Practice
COPYRIGHT © 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
With tougher competition, technology ad-
vances, and shifting customer preferences,
it’s more crucial than ever that companies
become learning organizations. In a learn-
ing organization, employees continually
create, acquire, and transfer knowledge—
helping their company adapt to the un-
predictable faster than rivals can.
But few companies have achieved this
ideal. Why? Managers don’t know the pre-
cise steps for building a learning organiza-
tion. And they lack tools for assessing
whether their teams are learning or how
that learning is benefiting the company.
Garvin, Edmondson, and Gino propose a
solution. First, understand the three building
blocks required for creating learning orga-
nizations: 1) a supportive environment, 2)
concrete learning processes, and 3) leader-
ship that reinforces learning. Then use
the authors’ diagnostic tool, the Learning
Organization Survey, to determine how
well your team, department, or entire com-
pany is performing with each building block.
By assessing performance on each building
block, you pinpoint areas needing improve-
ment, moving your company that much
closer to the learning organization ideal.
Garvin, Edmondson, and Gino recommend
these practices for enhancing learning in
your team or company.
IDENTIFY AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
By assessing how well your team, unit, or
company exhibits the defining characteris-
tics for each building block, you identify
areas for improvement. Comparing perfor-
mance of different units within your organi-
zation or against industry benchmarks also
reveals useful information.
Example:
A European public utility discovered that,
compared with rival companies, it was weak
in areas such as openness to new ideas,
experimentation, and information transfer.
This pattern wasn’t unexpected for a public
utility that had long enjoyed monopolies
in a small number of markets. But the com-
pany wanted to step up expansion into new
geographic areas. Its performance assess-
ment provided evidence that to reach this
strategic goal, it would need to concentrate
heavily on changing its established culture.
Understand the Three Building Blocks of a Learning Organization
Building Block Distinguishing Characteristics Example
A supportive
learning
environment
Employees:
• Feel safe disagreeing with others,
asking naive questions, owning
up to mistakes, and presenting
minority viewpoints
• Recognize the value of
opposing ideas
• Take risks and explore
the unknown
• Take time to review
organizational processes
Children’s Hospital and Clinics
in Minnesota instituted a new
policy of “blameless reporting.” The
policy replaced threatening terms
(“errors,” “investigations”) with less
emotionally laden ones (“accidents,”
“analysis”). People began identifying
and reporting risks without fear
of blame. And the number of
preventable deaths and illnesses
decreased.
Concrete
learning
processes
A team or company has
formal processes for:
• Generating, collecting,
interpreting, and disseminating
information
• Experimenting with new offerings
• Gathering intelligence on
competitors, customers, and
technological trends
• Identifying and solving problems
• Developing employees’ skills
Through its After Action Review
process, the U.S. Army conducts
a systematic debriefing after
every mission, project, or critical
activity. Participants ask, “What did
we set out to do?” “What actually
happened?” “Why?” and “What do
we do next time?” Lessons move
quickly up and down the chain of
command and laterally through
websites. Results are codified.
Leadership
that reinforces
learning
The organization’s leaders:
• Demonstrate willingness to
entertain alternative viewpoints
• Signal the importance of
spending time on problem
identification, knowledge transfer,
and reflection
• Engage in active questioning
and listening
Harvey Golub, former CEO of
American Express, challenged
managers to think creatively by
asking them questions such as,
“What alternatives have you
considered?” and “What are your
premises?” His questions generated
the open-minded discussion crucial
to learning.
T
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Is Yours a Learning
Organization?
by David A. Garvin, Amy C. Edmondson, and
Francesca Gino
harvard business review • march 2008 page 2
COPYRIGHT © 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Using this assessment tool, companies can pinpoint areas where they
need to foster knowledge sharing, idea development, learning from
mistakes, and holistic thinking.
Leaders may think that getting their organi-
zations to learn is only a matter of articulating
a clear vision, giving employees the right
incentives, and providing lots of training.
This assumption is not merely flawed—it’s
risky in the face of intensifying competi-
tion, advances in technology, and shifts in
customer preferences.
Organizations need to learn more than
ever as they confront these mounting forces.
Each company must become a learning orga-
nization. The concept is not a new one. It
flourished in the 1990s, stimulated by Peter
M. Senge’s The Fifth Discipline and countless
other publications, workshops, and websites.
The result was a compelling vision of an orga-
nization made up of employees skilled at
creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge.
These people could help their firms cultivate
tolerance, foster open discussion, and think
holistically and systemically. Such learning
organizations would be able to adapt to
the unpredictable more quickly than their
competitors could.
Unpredictability is very much still with
us. However, the ideal of the learning orga-
nization has not yet been realized. Three
factors have impeded progress. First, many
of the early discussions about learning orga-
nizations were paeans to a better world
rather than concrete prescriptions. They
overemphasized the forest and paid little
attention to the trees. As a result, the associ-
ated recommendations proved difficult to
implement—managers could not identify
the sequence of steps necessary for moving
forward. Second, the concept was aimed at
CEOs and senior executives rather than at
managers of smaller departments and units
where critical organizational work is done.
Those managers had no way of assessing
how their teams’ learning was contributing
to the organization as a whole. Third, stan-
dards and tools for assessment were lacking.
Without these, companies could declare
victory prematurely or claim progress without
delving into the particulars or comparing
themselves accurately with others.
Is Yours a Learning Organization?
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harvard business review • march 2008 page 3
In this article, we address these deficiencies
by presenting a comprehensive, concrete sur-
vey instrument for assessing learning within
an organization. Built from the ground up,
our tool measures the learning that occurs
in a department, office, project, or division—
an organizational unit of any size that has
meaningful shared or overlapping work activ-
ities. Our instrument enables your company
to compare itself against benchmark scores
gathered from other firms; to make assess-
ments across areas within the organization
(how, for, example, do different groups learn
relative to one another?); and to look
deeply within individual units. In each case,
the power is in the comparisons, not in the
absolute scores. You may find that an area
your organization thought was a strength is
actually less robust than at other organiza-
tions. In effect, the tool gives you a broader,
more grounded view of how well your company
learns and how adeptly it refines its strategies
and processes. Each organization, and each
unit within it, needs that breadth of perspec-
tive to accurately measure its learning against
that of its peers.
Building Blocks of the Learning
Organization
Organizational research over the past two
decades has revealed three broad factors that
are essential for organizational learning and
adaptability: a supportive learning environ-
ment, concrete learning processes and prac-
tices, and leadership behavior that provides
reinforcement. We refer to these as the building
blocks of the learning organization. Each block
and its discrete subcomponents, though vital
to the whole, are independent and can be
measured separately. This degree of granular
analysis has not been previously available.
Our tool is structured around the three
building blocks and allows companies to mea-
sure their learning proficiencies in great
detail. As you shall see, organizations do not
perform consistently across the three blocks,
nor across the various subcategories and
subcomponents. That fact suggests that differ-
ent mechanisms are at work in each building-
block area and that improving performance
in each is likely to require distinct supporting
activities. Companies, and units within them,
will need to address their particular strengths
and weaknesses to equip themselves for long-
term learning. Because all three building
blocks are generic enough for managers and
firms of all types to assess, our tool permits
organizations and units to slice and dice the
data in ways that are uniquely useful to them.
They can develop profiles of their distinctive
approaches to learning and then compare
themselves with a benchmark group of re-
spondents. To reveal the value of all these
comparisons, let’s look in depth at each of the
building blocks of a learning organization.
Building Block 1: A supportive learning
environment. An environment that supports
learning has four distinguishing characteristics.
Psychological safety. To learn, employees
cannot fear being belittled or marginalized
when they disagree with peers or authority
figures, ask naive questions, own up to mis-
takes, or present a minority viewpoint. In-
stead, they must be comfortable expressing
their thoughts about the work at hand.
Appreciation of differences. Learning occurs
when people become aware of opposing ideas.
Recognizing the value of competing func-
tional outlooks and alternative worldviews in-
creases energy and motivation, sparks fresh
thinking, and prevents lethargy and drift.
Openness to new ideas. Learning is not simply
about correcting mistakes and solving problems.
It is also about crafting novel approaches.
Employees should be encouraged to take risks
and explore the untested and unknown.
Time for reflection. All too many managers
are judged by the sheer number of hours
they work and the tasks they accomplish.
When people are too busy or overstressed
by deadlines and scheduling pressures, how-
ever, their ability to think analytically and
creatively is compromised. They become less
able to diagnose problems and learn from
their experiences. Supportive learning environ-
ments allow time for a pause in the action
and encourage thoughtful review of the
organization’s processes.
To change a culture of blame and silence
about errors at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics
of Minnesota, COO Julie Morath instituted a
new policy of “blameless reporting” that en-
couraged replacing threatening terms such
as “errors” and “investigations” with less emo-
tionally laden terms such as “accidents” and
“analysis.” For Morath, the culture of hospitals
must be, as she told us, “one of everyone
working together to understand safety, identify
David A. Garvin
(dgarvin@hbs.edu) is
the C. Roland Christensen Professor of
Business Administration and the chair of
the Teaching and Learning Center, and
Amy C. Edmondson (aedmondson@
hbs.edu) is the Novartis Professor of
Leadership and Management and
the chair of the doctoral programs, at
Harvard Business School in Boston.
Francesca Gino (fgino@andrew.cmu
.edu) is a visiting assistant professor of
organizational behavior and theory at
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Is Yours a Learning Organization?
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harvard business review • march 2008 page 4
risks, and report them with out fear of
blame.” The result was that people started to
collaborate throughout the organization to
talk about and change behaviors, policies,
and systems that put patients at risk. Over
time, these learning activities yielded measur-
able reductions in preventable deaths and
illnesses at the institution.
Building Block 2: Concrete learning
processes and practices. A learning organi-
zation is not cultivated effortlessly. It arises
from a series of concrete steps and widely
distributed activities, not unlike the workings
of business processes such as logistics, billing,
order fulfillment, and product development.
Learning processes involve the generation,
collection, interpretation, and dissemination
of information. They include experimentation
to develop and test new products and ser-
vices; intelligence gathering to keep track
of competitive, customer, and technological
trends; disciplined analysis and interpretation
to identify and solve problems; and educa-
tion and training to develop both new and
established employees.
For maximum impact, knowledge must
be shared in systematic and clearly defined
ways. Sharing can take place among individuals,
groups, or whole organizations. Knowledge
can move laterally or vertically within a firm.
The knowledge-sharing process can, for in-
stance, be internally focused, with an eye
toward taking corrective action. Right after a
project is completed, the process might call
for post-audits or reviews that are then shared
with others engaged in similar tasks. Alterna-
tively, knowledge sharing can be externally
oriented—for instance, it might include
regularly scheduled forums with customers or
subject-matter experts to gain their perspectives
on the company’s activities or challenges.
Together, these concrete processes ensure
that essential information moves quickly and
efficiently into the hands and heads of those
who need it.
Perhaps the best known example of this
approach is the U.S. Army’s After Action
Review (AAR) process, now widely used by
many companies, which involves a systematic
debriefing after every mission, project, or crit-
ical activity. This process is framed by four
simple questions: What did we set out to do?
What actually happened? Why did it happen?
What do we do next time? (Which activities
do we sustain, and which do we improve?) In
the army, lessons move quickly up and down
the chain of command, and laterally through
sanctioned websites. Then the results are cod-
ified by the Center for Army Lessons Learned,
or CALL. Such dissemination and codification
of learning is vital for any organization.
Building Block 3: Leadership that rein-
forces learning. Organizational learning is
strongly influenced by the behavior of lead-
ers. When leaders actively question and listen
to employees—and thereby prompt dialogue
and debate—people in the institution feel
encouraged to learn. If leaders signal the im-
portance of spending time on problem identi-
fication, knowledge transfer, and reflective
post-audits, these activities are likely to flourish.
When people in power demonstrate through
their own behavior a willingness to entertain
alternative points of view, employees feel
emboldened to offer new ideas and options.
Harvey Golub, former chief executive of
American Express, was renowned for his ability
to teach employees and managers. He
pushed hard for active reasoning and forced
managers to think creatively and in unex-
pected ways. A subordinate observed that he
often “came at things from a different angle”
to ensure that conventional approaches
were not accepted without first being scruti-
nized. “I am far less interested in people
having the right answer than in their thinking
about issues the right way,” Golub told us.
“What criteria do they use? Why do they
think the way they do? What alternatives
have they considered? What premises do
they have? What rocks are they standing
on?” His questions were not designed to
yield particular answers, but rather to gener-
ate truly open-minded discussion.
The three building blocks of organizational
learning reinforce one another and, to some
degree, overlap. Just as leadership behaviors
help create and sustain supportive learning
environments, such environments make it
easier for managers and employees to execute
concrete learning processes and practices
smoothly and efficiently. Continuing the
virtuous circle, concrete processes provide
opportunities for leaders to behave in ways
that foster learning and to cultivate that
behavior in others.
When leaders
demonstrate a
willingness to entertain
alternative points of
view, employees feel
emboldened to offer new
ideas.
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Assess the Depth of Learning in Your Organization
This diagnostic survey, which you
take online, is designed to help you
determine how well your company
functions as a learning organization.
The complete interactive version,
available at los.hbs.edu, includes all
the self-assessment statements to the
right; they are divided into three sec-
tions, each representing one building
block of the learning organization. In
the first two blocks, your task is to
rate, on a seven-point scale, how accu-
rately each statement describes the
organizational unit in which you work.
In the third block, your task is to rate
how often the managers (or manager)
to whom you report exemplify the
behavior described.
Dynamic scoring online synthesizes
your ratings (some are reverse-scored
because they reflect undesirable be-
haviors) and yields an estimated score
for each building block and subcom-
ponent. Synthesized scores are then
converted to a zero-to-100 scale for ease
of comparison with other people in
your unit and other units in your orga-
nization. In addition, you can compare
your scores with benchmark data that
appear in the following sidebar.
Building Block 1: Supportive
Learning Environment
Psychological Safety
In this unit, it is easy to speak up
about what is on your mind.
If you make a mistake in this unit, it
is often held against you.*
People in this unit are usually
comfortable talking about problems
and disagreements.
People in this unit are eager to share
information about what does and
doesn’t work.
Keeping your cards close to your vest
is the best way to get ahead in this unit.*
Appreciation of Differences
Differences in opinion are welcome
in this unit.
Unless an opinion is consistent with
what most people in this unit believe, it
won’t be valued.*
This unit tends to handle differences of
opinion privately or off-line, rather than
addressing them directly with the group.*
In this unit, people are open to alter-
native ways of getting work done.
Openness to New Ideas
In this unit, people value new ideas.
Unless an idea has been around for
a long time, no one in this unit wants
to hear it.*
In this unit, people are interested in
better ways of doing things.
In this unit, people often resist
untried approaches.*
Time for Reflection
People in this unit are overly stressed.*
Despite the workload, people in this
unit find time to review how the work
is going.
In this unit, schedule pressure gets in
the way of doing a good job.*
In this unit, people are too busy to
invest time in improvement.*
There is simply no time for reflection
in this unit.*
Building Block 2: Concrete
Learning Processes and
Practices
Experimentation
This unit experiments frequently
with new ways of working.
This unit experiments frequently
with new product or service offerings.
This unit has a formal process for
conducting and evaluating experiments
or new ideas.
This unit frequently employs proto-
types or simulations when trying out
new ideas.
Information Collection
This unit systematically collects
information on
•
competitors
•
customers
•
economic and social trends
•
technological trends
This unit frequently compares its
performance with that of
•
competitors
•
best-in-class organizations
Analysis
This unit engages in productive
conflict and debate during discussions.
This unit seeks out dissenting views
during discussions.
This unit never revisits well-established
perspectives during discussions.*
This unit frequently identifies and
discusses underlying assumptions that
might affect key decisions.
This unit never pays attention to
different views during discussions.*
Education and Training
Newly hired employees in this unit
receive adequate training.
Experienced employees in this unit
receive
•
periodic training and training
updates
•
training when switching to a new
position
•
training when new initiatives
are launched
In this unit, training is valued.
In this unit, time is made available
for education and training activities.
Information Transfer
This unit has forums for meeting
with and learning from
•
experts from other departments,
teams, or divisions
•
experts from outside the organiza-
tion
•
customers and clients
•
suppliers
This unit regularly shares informa-
tion with networks of experts within
the organization.
This unit regularly shares informa-
tion with networks of experts outside
the organization.
This unit quickly and accurately
communicates new knowledge to key
decision makers.
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harvard business review • march 2008 page 6
Uses for the Organizational
Learning Tool
Our online diagnostic tool is designed to help
you answer two questions about the organiza-
tional unit that you lead or in which you work:
“To what extent is your unit functioning as a
learning organization?” and “What are the
relationships among the factors that affect
learning in your unit?” People who complete
the survey rate how accurately a series of brief,
descriptive sentences in each of the three
building blocks of learning describe their orga-
nization and its learning culture. For the list
of statements in the complete survey, informa-
tion about where to find it online, and details
about how it works, see the exhibit “Assess the
Depth of Learning in Your Organization.”
There are two primary ways to use the
survey. First, an individual can take it to get a
quick sense of her work unit or project team.
Second, several members of a unit can each
complete the survey and average their scores.
Either way, the next step is to compare indi-
vidual or group self-evaluations with overall
benchmark scores from our baseline group of
organizations. The benchmark data are strati-
fied into quartiles—that is, the bottom 25%,
the next 25%, and so on—for each attribute,
arrayed around a median (see the exhibit
“Benchmark Scores for the Learning Organi-
zation Survey”). Once you have obtained your
own scores online, you can identify the quar-
tile in which your scores fall and reflect on
how they match your prior expectations
about where you stand.
Having compared individual or unit scores
with the benchmarks, it’s possible to identify
areas of excellence and opportunities for
improvement. If employees in multiple units
wish to take the survey, you can also make
the comparisons unit-by-unit or companywide.
Even if just two people from different parts
of a firm compare scores, they can pinpoint
cultural differences, commonalities, and things
to learn from one another. They may also dis-
cover that their unit—or even the company—
lags behind in many areas. By pooling
individual and unit scores, organizations as a
whole can begin to address specific problems.
Holding Up the Mirror at Eutilize
Consider how managers from a major Euro-
pean public utility, which we will call Eutilize,
used the survey to assess their company’s
readiness for and progress in becoming a
learning organization. In the summer of 2006,
19 midlevel managers took the survey. Before
learning their scores, participants were asked
to estimate where they thought Eutilize would
stand in relation to the benchmark results
from other firms.
Virtually all the participants predicted
average or better scores, in keeping with the
company’s espoused goal of using knowl-
edge and best-practice transfers as a source
of competitive advantage. But the results
did not validate those predictions. To their
great surprise, Eutilize’s managers rated
themselves below the median baseline scores
in almost all categories. For example, out of
a possible scaled score of 100, they had 68 on
leadership, compared with the median
benchmark score of 76. Similarly, they
scored 58 on concrete learning processes
(versus the median benchmark of 74) and
62 on supportive learning environment (ver-
sus the median of 71). These results revealed
to the Eutilize managers that integrating
systematic learning practices into their or-
ganization would take considerable work.
However, the poorest-scoring measures, such
as experimentation and time for reflection,
were common to both Eutilize and the
baseline organizations. So Eutilize was not
This unit regularly conducts post-
audits and after-action reviews.
Building Block 3: Leadership
That Reinforces Learning
My managers invite input from others
in discussions.
My managers acknowledge their
own limitations with respect to knowl-
edge, information, or expertise.
My managers ask probing questions.
My managers listen attentively.
My managers encourage multiple
points of view.
My managers provide time, re-
sources, and venues for identifying
problems and organizational challenges.
My managers provide time, re-
sources, and venues for reflecting and
improving on past performance.
My managers criticize views differ-
ent from their own.*
* Reverse-scored items
Visit learning.tools.hbr.org for
a short version of this survey and
for recommended lists of learning
resources that are tailored to your
results. For the complete interactive
tool, including scoring, go to
los.hbs.edu.
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harvard business review • march 2008 page 7
unusual in where it needed to improve, just
in how much.
The portrait that emerged was not unex-
pected for a public utility that had long
enjoyed monopolies in a small number of
markets and that only recently had estab-
lished units in other geographic areas. Eutilize’s
scores in the bottom quartile on openness to
new ideas, experimentation, conflict and
debate, and information transfer were evidence
that changing the company’s established
culture would be a long haul.
Eutilize’s managers also discovered the
degree to which their mental models about
their own ways of working were inaccurate.
For example, they learned that many people
in their firm believed that “analysis” was an
area of strength for Eutilize, but they inter-
preted analysis to be merely number crunching.
The survey results helped them to understand
the term analysis more broadly—to think
about the degree to which people test as-
sumptions, engage in productive debate, and
seek out dissenting views. Each of those areas
Benchmark Scores for the Learning Organization Survey
Our baseline data were derived from surveys
of large groups of senior executives in a va-
riety of industries who completed an eight-
week general management program at
Harvard Business School. We first conducted
the survey in the spring of 2006 with 100
executives in order to evaluate the statistical
properties of the survey and assess the
underlying constructs. That autumn we
surveyed another 125 senior executives to use
as our benchmark data.
After you’ve taken the complete survey
at los.hbs.edu, compare the average scores
for people in your group with the bench-
mark scores in the following chart. If your
group’s scores fall at or below the median in a
particular building block or subcomponent—
especially if they are in the bottom quartile—
consider initiating an improvement effort
in that area. One possibility is to assemble
a team to brainstorm specific, concrete
strategies for enhancing the area of weakness.
In any building block or subcomponent
where your group’s scores fall above the
median—especially if they are in the top
quartile—consider partnering with other
units in your organization that may benefit
from specific, concrete strategies that you
can articulate and model for them in the
area of weakness.
serocS delacS
Building Blocks and Their
Subcomponents
Bottom
quartile
Second
quartile Median
Third
quartile
Top
quartile
Supportive Learning Environment
• Psychological safety 31–66 67–75 76 77–86 87–100
• Appreciation of differences 14–56 57–63 64 65–79 80–100
• Openness to new ideas 38–80 81–89 90 91–95 96–100
• Time for reflection 14–35 36–49 50 51–64 65–100
Learning environment composite 31–61 62–70 71 72–79 80–90
Concrete Learning Processes and Practices
• Experimentation 18–53 54–70 71 72–82 83–100
• Information collection 23–70 71–79 80 81–89 90 –100
• Analysis 19–56 57–70 71 72–86 87–100
• Education and training 26–68 69–79 80 81–89 90–100
• Information transfer 34–60 61–70 71 72– 84 85–100
Learning processes composite 31–62 63–73 74 75–82 83–97
Leadership That Reinforces Learning
Composite for this block 33–66 67–75 76 77–82 83–100
Note: The scaled scores for learning e nvironment and learning processes were computed by multiply-
ing each raw score on the seven-point s cale by 100 and d ividing it by seve n. For learnin g leadership,
which was based on a five -point scale, th e divisor was fi ve.
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harvard business review • march 2008 page 8
was actually a weakness in the firm. This revela-
tion led Eutilize’s managers to understand that
without a more open environment buttressed
by the right processes and leadership, the com-
pany would have difficulty implementing a
new strategy it had just adopted.
Eutilize’s experience illustrates how our
organizational learning tool prompts reflective
discussion among managers about their lead-
ership and organizational practices. Without
concrete data, such reflection can become
abstract and susceptible to idiosyncratic as-
sessments and often emotional disagreements
about the current state of affairs. With the
survey data in hand, managers had a starting
point for discussion, and participants were
able to point to specific behaviors, practices,
or events that might explain both high and
low scores. The results also helped Eutilize’s
managers to identify the areas where their
firm needed special attention.
Given that the survey-based scores derive
from perceptions, the best use of the data at
Eutilize was, as it would be at any company,
to initiate conversation and self-reflection,
not to be the sole basis for decision making.
Discussions had to be conducted with a
healthy balance of what scholars call “advo-
cacy and inquiry.” The communication allowed
people the latitude to assert their personal
observations and preferred suggestions for
action, but it also ensured that everyone took
the time to carefully consider viewpoints that
were not their own. In addition, managers
learned the importance of using concrete
examples to illustrate interpretations, to refer
to specific practices or processes, and to clar-
ify observations. Finally, the participants
from Eutilize identified specific actions to be
taken. Had they not done so, the discussions
could have deteriorated into unproductive
complaint sessions.
Moving Forward: Four Principles
Our experiences developing, testing, and
using this survey have provided us with sev-
eral additional insights for managers who
seek to cultivate learning organizations.
Leadership alone is insufficient. By model-
ing desired behaviors—open-minded ques-
tioning, thoughtful listening, consideration of
multiple options, and acceptance of opposing
points of view—leaders are indeed likely to
foster greater learning. However, learning-
oriented leadership behaviors alone are not
enough. The cultural and process dimensions
of learning appear to require more explicit,
targeted interventions. We studied dozens of
organizations in depth when developing our
survey questions and then used the instru-
ment with four firms that had diverse sizes,
locations, and missions. All four had higher
scores in learning leadership than in concrete
learning processes or supportive learning
environment. Performance often varies from
category to category. This suggests that install-
ing formal learning processes and cultivating a
supportive learning climate requires steps
beyond simply modifying leadership behavior.
Organizations are not monolithic. Man-
agers must be sensitive to differences among
departmental processes and behaviors as they
strive to build learning organizations. Groups
may vary in their focus or learning maturity.
Managers need to be especially sensitive to
local cultures of learning, which can vary
widely across units. For example, an early
study of medical errors documented signifi-
cant differences in rates of reported mistakes
among nursing units at the same hospital,
reflecting variations in norms and behaviors
established by unit managers. In most settings,
a one-size-fits-all strategy for building a learn-
ing organization is unlikely to be successful.
Comparative performance is the critical
scorecard. Simply because an organization
scores itself highly in a certain area of learning
behavior or processes does not make that area
a source of competitive advantage. Surpris-
ingly, most of the organizations we surveyed
identified the very same domains as their
areas of strength. “Openness to new ideas”
and “education and training” almost univer-
sally scored higher than other attributes or
categories, probably because of their obvious
links to organizational improvement and
personal development. A high score therefore
conveys limited information about perfor-
mance. The most important scores on critical
learning attributes are relative—how your or-
ganization compares with competitors or
benchmark data.
Learning is multidimensional. All too of-
ten, companies’ efforts to improve learning
are concentrated in a single area—more time
for reflection, perhaps, or greater use of post-
audits and after-action reviews. Our analysis
suggests, however, that each of the building
M
anagers need to be
especially sensitive to
local cultures of learning,
which can vary widely
across units.
Is Yours a Learning Organization?
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harvard business review • march 2008 page 9
blocks of a learning organization (environment,
processes, and leadership behaviors) is itself
multidimensional and that those elements
respond to different forces. You can enhance
learning in an organization in various ways,
depending on which subcomponent you
emphasize—for example, when it comes to
improving the learning environment, one
company might want to focus on psychological
safety and another on time for reflection.
Managers need to be thoughtful when select-
ing the levers of change and should think
broadly about the available options. Our
survey opens up the menu of possibilities.
• • •
The goal of our organizational learning tool
is to promote dialogue, not critique. All the
organizations we studied found that reviewing
their survey scores was a chance to look into a
mirror. The most productive discussions
were those where managers wrestled with the
implications of their scores, especially the
comparative dimensions (differences by level,
subunit, and so forth), instead of simply assess-
ing performance harshly or favorably. These
managers sought to understand their organi-
zations’ strengths and weaknesses and to paint
an honest picture of their cultures and leader-
ship. Not surprisingly, we believe that the
learning organization survey is best used not
merely as a report card or bottom-line score
but rather as a diagnostic instrument—in
other words, as a tool to foster learning.
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Further Reading
ARTICLES
Building a Learning Organization
by David A. Garvin
Harvard Business Review
July–August 1993
Product no. 93402
This article is Garvin’s first on the subject of
learning organizations and provides the
fundamental concepts illustrated with numer-
ous company examples from a wide range of
industries. Garvin describes the techniques
various companies have developed to master
five key activities associated with learning:
systematic problem solving, experimentation,
learning from past experience, learning from
others, and transferring knowledge. The
article also shows how organizations can
measure learning by tracing changes in the
way employees think, how they behave, and
how the organization is performing.
Learning in the Thick of It
by Marilyn Darling, Charles Parry, and
Joseph Moore
Harvard Business Review
July–August 2005
Product no. R0507G
The authors present a case study of how a
brigade in the U.S. Army uses After Action
Reviews (AARs) to support continuous learning.
The Army’s Opposing Force (OPFOR) is a
2,500-member brigade whose job is to pre-
pare soldiers for combat. To that end, OPFOR
engages units-in-training in a variety of mock
campaigns under a wide range of conditions.
Through AARs, OPFOR extracts knowledge
from its experiences with each new training
unit and uses it in subsequent training.
OPFOR’s AAR process has four requirements:
1) lessons must benefit the team that extracts
them, 2) the AAR process must start at the
beginning of each training, 3) lessons must
link explicitly to future actions, and 4) leaders
must hold everyone (especially themselves)
accountable for learning.
BOOK
Learning in Action: A Guide to Putting the
Learning Organization to Work
David A. Garvin
HBS Press
2003
Product no. 1903
In this book, Garvin offers a complete overview
of learning organization concepts. He introduces
three modes of learning—intelligence
gathering, experience, and experimentation—
and shows how each mode is most effectively
deployed. These approaches are brought
to life in richly detailed case studies of learning
in action at organizations such as Xerox,
L.L. Bean, the U.S. Army, and GE. The book
concludes with a discussion of the leader-
ship role that senior executives must play
to make learning a day-to-day reality in
their organizations.