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time pressure not only kills creativity but does not allow managers to diagnose problems
and learn from their experiences. Supportive learning environment needs time for a pause
in the action to encourage a thoughtful review of the organizations processes. The
authors David A Garvin and others quote an instance of a Childrens Hospitals and
Clinics policy of blameless reporting. The policy by replacing threatening terms such as
errors and investigations with less emotionally loaded terms such as, accidents and
analysis encouraged and brought in a culture, where everyone works together to
understand safety, identify risks and report them without fear of blame. This change in
culture enabled people to collaborate throughout the organization to talk about and
change behaviors, policies, and systems that put patients at risks. Over times, these
changes resulted in measurable reductions in preventable deaths and illnesses.
than six months, one could consider a periodic AAR insight capturing after a significant
milestone or a phase.
2. John Shook in his article Toyotas Secret: The A3 Report in Sloan Management Review
in Summer 2009 shows how Toyota solves problems that generate knowledge and help
employees while doing their work makes them to learn. The managers use a tool called
A3 (named after the international paper size on which it fits) to share a deeper method of
thinking that lies at the heart of Toyotas sustained success.
A3 is a simple seven sequential steps for capturing organizational learning: 1) Establish the
business context and importance of a specific problem or issue; 2) Describe the current
conditions of the problem; 3) Identify the desired outcome; 4) Analyze the situation to establish
causality; 5) Propose countermeasures; 6) Prescribe and action plan for getting it done; and 7)
Map out the follow-up process. This tool serves as a mechanism for managers to mentor others in
root-cause analysis and scientific thinking and align the interests of individuals and departments
throughout the organization by encouraging productive dialogue and helping people learn from
one another
3. The 5 Ws (Whys) and 1 H (How) process explores the cause/effect relationships
underlying a particular problem. This process was originally developed by Sakichi
Toyoda and was later used by Toyota Motors during the evolution of its manufacturing
methodologies The maxim of the Five Ws (and one H) is that in order for a report to be
complete, it must answer a checklist of six questions, each of which comprises an
interrogative word:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
How?
The maxim underlies that each question should elicit a factual answer facts that it is necessary
to include for a report to be considered complete. None of these six questions can be answered
with a simple yes or no.
upsetting and moving the equilibrium to a new state. Many of these stimuli can be thought of as
driving forces that push us toward something new, but we also generate within ourselves
restraining forces that keep us at the present state. Learning or change takes place when the
driving forces are greater that the restraining forces. Such driving forces could be rewards and
recognition that could be built in organizational systems as mentioned in the three building
blocks of David Garvin and others.
An organization culture is not about homogeneity. Edgar H Schein in his book The Corporate
Culture Survival Guide 2009 says as organizations grow and mature, they not only develop their
own culture, but also differentiate themselves into many subcultures based on occupations,
product lines, functions, geographies and echelons in the hierarchy. Leaders must not only
understand the cultural consequences of the many way in which organizations differentiate
themselves but, more importantly, must align the various subcultures that have been created
towards a common corporate purpose.
Taking this logic of aligning subcultures in to a companys overall culture, it becomes
imperative for an organization to capture these nuances between departments and businesses.
The nuances could be in terms of capturing knowledge by way formats framing of standard
vocabulary or taxonomy unique to the functions or businesses. Such nuances not only bring
uniformity in organization learning, but also help employees to work smarter.
True organizational learning must promote dialogue, not critique. Most importantly, surveys
should not be used to generate judgmental report cards but rather as a developmental instrument
tool to foster learning.
Source:
1. David Garvin and others. Is yours a learning organization? Harvard Business Review.
March 2008
2. Edgar H Schein. The corporate cultural survival guide. Rev Ed. Jossey-Bass2009
3. John Shook. Toyotas Secret: The A3 Report. Sloan Management Review Summer 2009.