a 3 hour experiential learning tutorial on organizational learning focused on perception and behavior change

1. how did your organizational learning game come up?
Andrew Clay Shafer
Santa Clara 2014
@littleidea

2. this guy

3. @littleidea

4. the plan
• how we got here
• share experiences
• grand finale

5. meanwhile…

6. software kept eating the world

7. three stone cutters walk into a
Pareto Inefficient Nash Equilibrium

8. you are either building a
software business...
or you will be losing
to someone who is...

9. obvious

10. you are either building a
learning organization...
or you will be losing
to someone who is...

12. @littleideas practical guide to organizational learning

13. @littleideas practical guide to organizational learning

14. @littleideas practical guide to organizational learning

15. The learning organization is one that has
the capacity to integrate people and
structures in order to move toward
continuous learning and change.

16. a learning organization not only has the
advantage of the increasing capacity of
cultivated talents, but has advantages
attracting and retaining talent

17. learning cannot be something that
happens outside of the process
learning is the point of the process

18. continuous
learning

19. what even is learning?

20. • knowledge acquired by systematic study in any field of scholarly application.
• the act or process of acquiring knowledge or skill.
• the modification of behavior through practice, training, or experience.
learn·ing [lur-ning] noun

21. how does an organization
change behavior?

22. does your organization value
behavior change?

23. The real company values, as opposed to
the nice sounding values, are shown by
who gets rewarded, promoted, or let go.
!
--Patty McCord

24. the game has changed

25. It is not necessary to change.
Survival is not mandatory.
- W. Edwards Deming

26. 7 dimensions of
Organizational Learning

27. 7 dimensions of Organizational Learning
• continuous learning
• inquiry and dialog
• team learning
• empowerment
• embedded system
• system connection
• strategic leadership

28. continuous learning
represents an organization’s effort to create continuous
learning opportunities for ALL of its members

29. inquiry and dialog
an organization’s effort in creating a culture of
questioning, feedback, and experimentation

30. team learning
spirit of collaboration and the collaborative skills
that undergird the effective use of teams

31. empowerment
encourage feedback and action to address the gap between
the current status and the vision regardless of rank

32. embedded system
establish systems to capture and share learning

33. system connection
actions to connect the organization to its
internal and external environment

34. strategic leadership
the extent to which leaders act strategically
using learning to create change

35. In my organization?
form of questions

36. In my organization,
people openly discuss mistakes
in order to learn from them

37. In my organization,
people identify skills they
need for future work tasks

38. In my organization,
people are encouraged to ask
“why” regardless of rank

39. In my organization,
groups focus both on the group’s task
and on how well the group is working

40. My organization builds
alignment of visions across
different levels and work groups

41. how powerful would it be if
those weren’t questions?

42. In my organization!
form of statements

43. and not just is words and spirit
but deliberately incentivized
if they are not incentivized, they won’t be real

44. the five disciplines of a learning organization
• Personal Mastery
• Mental Models
• Building a Shared Vision
• Team Learning
• Systems Thinking

45. personal mastery
discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our
personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing
patience, and of seeing reality objectively.

46. mental models
deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even
pictures of images that influence how we understand the
world and how we take action

47. building a shared vision
a practice of unearthing shared pictures of the future that foster
genuine commitment and enrollment rather than compliance

48. team learning
starts with dialogue, the capacity of members of a team to
suspend assumptions and enter into genuine thinking together

49. systems thinking
Seeing the big picture, the Fifth Discipline
that integrates the other four

50. let’s get meta

51. 1-2-3

52. see what I did there?

53. get a paper and a pen

54. color

55. furniture

56. flower

57. show of hands

58. more paper

59. Slumber
Dream
Bed
Quiet
Nap
Pillow
Night
Blanket
Pajamas
Snooze

60. without talking, write
down as many words as
you can remember

61. thumb wrestling

62. mental models?

63. more paper

64. close your eyes

65. fold your paper in half and tear
off the bottom right corner

66. fold your paper in half again
and tear off the upper right
hand corner

67. fold the paper in half again and
tear off the lower left corner

68. open your eyes, unfold your
paper and hold it up for the
group to see

69. groups of 3

70. team juggle

71. expected/desired
time
pressure to
improve
time spent
discussing new ideas
openness to
change
team
learning
best time of
the group
skill of
approach
team
alignment
team’s ability to
translate knowledge
into concrete process

72. EFFORTS
ACTUAL
PERFORMANCE
LIMITING
ACTION
CONSTRAINT

73. innovations in
infrastructure
guiding ideas skills and
capabilities
awareness and
sensibilities
theory, methods
and tools
domain of action
attitudes
and beliefs
domain of
enduring change
(organizational
architecture)
(deep learning cycle)

74. you can either easily manage
complex systems at scale...
or you can’t

76. you can either easily manage
complex systems at scale...
or you can’t
(has nothing to do with computers)

77. we can do better

78. Conway’s Law
organizations which design systems...
are constrained to produce designs which are copies of
the communication structures of these organizations

79. how many put as much effort into
designing their culture as they do
their applications and systems?

80. what are you building?

83. what game are you playing?

84. what do you value?

85. what are you rewarding and
promoting?

86. Puzzles in Organizational Learning
• things that are forgotten in the heat of battle
• values that get pushed aside in the rough and tumble of everyday living
• the goals we ought to be thinking about and never do
• the facts we don’t like to face
• the questions we lack the courage to ask

87. economies of scale

88. economies of skill

89. the game has changed

90. the payoffs for a given
strategy have changed

91. systems thinking

92. a community with unique
advantages reasoning
about systems

93. ‘that’s not my job’

94. ‘that decision is
above my paygrade’

95. these are legacy
culture smells

96. be loyal to the truth

97. don’t be afraid

98. success is about
being the right people

99. success is about
becoming the right people

100. never stop becoming

101. don’t limit yourself

102. don’t limit us

103. BECOME AWESOME

104. thanks Velocity
@littleidea

105. come at me
@littleidea

106. bonus material

107. Anti-Fragile™

109. A tale of two projects

110. contrast...
the gossamer condor
with

111. The Vasa was launched after failing a stability test.

112. the gossamer condor broke records for human powered flight