If you’re an Agile, DevOps or Digital practitioner or an organization thinking about or undertaking one of these transformations you may ask yourself why do I need to do an organizational learning assessment or even care about that. The answer is that it’s the key to succeeding with Agile, DevOps or Digital. The truth is that if your attempting one of these transformations and the organization does not have a learning culture in place (sorry, most companies don’t), then attempting Agile, DevOps or Digital is going to be like pushing a large boulder up a mountain. The result will be that you’ll push the boulder up a portion of the mountain, but at some point, you will tire, and boulder will roll back down the mountain. Unfortunately, many organizations and practitioners will continue to repeat this exercise in futility.
One of the steps anyone attempting Agile, DevOps or Digital should do is try and determine to what extent does the organization have a learning culture? We need to understand that before the organization undertakes their their Agile, DevOps or Digital journey, you need to know where you are starting in terms of the organizational learning culture. Yes, most management teams in organizations believe they have a learning culture, they’ll tell you about how they have programs to reimburse tuition, have training available and encourage employees to attend learning opportunities. Guess what, this does not mean you have a learning culture in place.
What an Organizational Learning Assessment tells us
One of the very first things we encourage any practitioner or organization to learn is what exactly is organizational culture, we suggest starting with Edgar Schein’s model of organizational culture. Once you have a grasp of organizational culture you will want to know to what extent the following are in the organization.
- What are/or are there underlying beliefs and assumptions supporting learning in the organization?
- Are the organizational values and principles driving learning in the organization?
- Are the employees and other stakeholders able to see the symbols and artifacts of learning and performance improvement in the organization?
We need to ask if the employees, their teams, groups and the organization as-a-whole know what they need to learn to be successful? (This is key to Agile, DevOps or Digital). As an example, moving to Agile is great and using any of the methodologies is a step in the right direction, but we need to ask, have we explained and offered the learning needed to truly become Agile. What skills do employees need to develop in order to practice Agile and have we explained how Agile aligns with the organization’s strategic intents? Do the employees know how to develop these competencies they will need for Agile, DevOps or Digital? A critical learning factor is, do the employees and the organization know how to sustain this learning over time? (This is part of the reason so many Agile transformations falter over time). By understanding how Agile, DevOps or Digital aligns with the strategic intents for instance, the employees will know how to ensure that learning they are developing with Agile, DevOps or Digital is applied and makes a difference for the organization?
There are a number or organizational learning assessment tools that currently exist that might be helpful in this analysis. The ADAPT Model organizational learning assessment is designed to look for a supportive learning environment, concrete learning processes and practices, and leadership behavior that provides reinforcement. It important to understand that the ADAPT Model tool was designed to be used for learning, not to judge the quality of an organization’s learning culture.
What an Organizational Learning Assessment allows us to do
By taking the organizational learning assessment, we now have feedback in order for the organization to perform organizational self-reflection. By taking the assessment and collecting the data and then discussing the results, the organization must confront critical questions such as, does the current culture support learning? Are there everyday processes and procedures in place to ensure that learning and change is being embedded in the way employees, groups and teams work together? Has top leadership made continuous learning a priority and communicated this throughout the organization? Once these questions are confronted and discussed, then, hopefully, leadership will use the answers to these questions to motivate further learning and performance improvement and contribute to developing a learning culture in the process.
How to use the Organizational Learning Assessment to drive organizational learning
No matter which organizational learning assessment you use, what’s most critical is to use the results to implement stakeholder focused process that results in organizational learning. This stakeholder process will work best if you follow these basic steps.
- Senior leadership must communicate a compelling need for the survey in advance of sending the assessment to the employees.
- The communication from senior leadership should clearly define the entire data gathering and feedback process emphasizing the role of employees.
- The findings from the assessment should be validated by the key stakeholders. i.e. – those who provided the survey responses.
- Always be aware that the data from an assessment can always be interpreted in many different ways given organizational circumstances, response rates, respondent demographics, the wording of questions and design of the assessment. Don’t allow the organization to become bogged down in the interpretation.
- Hold group discussion/town halls to cover the findings throughout the organization and with all levels for their interpretation and recommendations, this will lead to a deeper understanding, greater alignment, and vastly better solutions.
- Possibly the most important step in the process is for the leadership team to communicate back to the entire organization in a timely manner what it is that will be done as a result of the insights gained through the assessment and all of the group discussions.
- The communication from leadership must clearly define what leaders know now that they didn’t know before? What will be changed that will improve the work environment and increase organizational success? Who will be responsible and when will this happen? What follow-up measurements will be put into place to ensure the success of the changes?
Conclusion
Data collected from an assessment is only meaningful to an organization if it helps generate conversation inside the organization that contributes to discovering where the organization is at in the start of their journey. Any assessment of an organization learning culture should have several purposes, to learn from each other, to learn about the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, and to learn what will improve performance.
An Organizational Learning assessment can be looked at as the compass leading the organization on its journey towards a learning culture. The assessment informs the organization where it’s at during any point in time. By following the compass, the organization will be able to select the best route to their destination.
ADAPT Model Organizational Learning Assessment:
120 Questions – 7 Sections
- Assesses behaviors of individuals in your organization
- Assesses actions or work of groups and teams
- Assesses to what extent you believe each value asked is widely-held in your organization
- Assesses the culture, strategy and vision of your organization
- Assesses the perceptions of management’s influence on your unit
- Assesses how system, structures and procedures of your organization influence you and your work unit
- Assesses how the organization is meeting the needs of various groups