The Importance of Learning in Organizations

Harvard Business Review published a nice video interview on The Importance of Learning in Organizations, with David Garvin and Amy Edmondson, Professors, Harvard Business School, hosted by Paul Michalman, director of content for HarvardBusiness.org. They are coauthors of the HBR article Is Yours a Learning Organization? According Wikipedia, a learning organization is the term given to a company that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself. Learning organizations develop as a result of the pressures facing modern organizations and enables them to remain competitive in the business environment. A learning organization has five main features; systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision and team learning.

They wrote in their article: "Organizations need to learn more than ever as they confront these mounting forces. Each company must become a learning organization. The result was a compelling vision of an organization 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."

You can watch the video below, in the HBR.org or in the Harvard Business YouTube Channel.