From:

Organisational Learning in NGOs: Creating the Motive, Means and Opportunity

By Bruce Britton, INTRAC, March 2005 (page 37-38)

Developing a strategy for organisational learning

Develop a planned strategy / Create conditions for ‘emergent’ possibilities
Motive
·  Create a clear vision for the organisation of how organisational learning can contribute to the organisation’s effectiveness, capacity, sustainability and health.
·  Identify barriers to learning and develop ways of overcoming them.
·  Build learning goals into plans at all levels: individual, project, programme and strategic.
·  Demonstrate the value of investing in organisational learning by monitoring and evaluating the outcomes and impact of organisational learning initiatives.
·  Develop systems for acknowledging and rewarding learning.
·  Develop mechanisms for establishing collective responsibility for results. / ·  Share practical examples of the benefits of organisational learning.
·  Share and celebrate successful initiatives.
·  De-mystify learning by familiarising staff with useful conceptual models.
·  Emphasise the importance of ‘small scale’ learning.
Means
·  Map out where expertise lies in the organisation.
·  Develop team-working.
·  Introduce a range of methods such as mentoring, coaching, action-learning and communities of practice.
·  Build an appropriate knowledge management infrastructure.
·  If appropriate, create posts for supporting organisational learning or knowledge management. / ·  Develop individual competences.
·  Recognise the importance of cultural dimensions of learning when building competences and developing methods and tools.
·  Strengthen inter-personal relationships and build trust.
Opportunity
·  Create the ‘space’ for learning.
·  Build learning into existing systems and procedures.
·  Build learning requirements into project design, monitoring and evaluation.
·  Build time and resources for reflection and learning into project and programme proposals.
·  Use a system of annual studies on ‘what have we learned from evaluations?’
·  Use thematic learning reviews.
·  Involve staff/partners alongside external consultants in review and evaluation teams. / ·  Build a rich web of interconnections within the organisation and with other organisations by encouraging networking and the development of communities of practice.
·  Introduce ‘no-travel’ times, ‘homeweeks’ and reflection periods.