A Parable about Implementing Change in a Learning Organization

A Parable about Implementing Change in a Learning Organization was first published in The Busy Lifestyle Magazine.

The Story of the Blind Men and the Elephant: We will talk about learning organizations and we will use this parable as a metaphor for the learning process in complex organizations.

Originated in India, this is an age old story of a group of blind men, who have never come across an elephant before, and who learn and conceptualize what the elephant is like by touching it. They described the elephant based on their partial experience and their descriptions are in complete disagreement with one another and with what an elephant is.

You remember it, don’t you?

In the modern version of the story the elephant became the company and the blind men are now the departments of the company, who, as the blind men of the original story, see the organisation only from the perspective of their own activity.

Rather scary, don’t you think?

The antithesis of this type of organisation is the learning organisation, a type of organisation where information is shared, aggregated, broadly communicated and readily available (see Peter Senge: The Fifth Discipline).

In a learning organisation, system thinking is essential.

Let’s imagine for a second how it will be to put in place a new business process, information system (or anything new that could bring a competitive advantage to the company) in such an environment.

In this type of organization, information flows from the individual to the team to the entire organisation.

Knowledge exists not only in the head of the employees but it is also translated into a well-structured knowledge base of business processes.

Departments are aligned and they provide value and foster the success of the organisation.

Related reading: In a learning organization the individuals are intrinsically motivated to work on their personal development and grow. And they are willing to collaborate and help each other grow and make the organization a place where creativity and innovation flourish. They also know how to manage stress and keep the focus on searching for solutions.

Now let’s look at some of the potential advantages of implementing change in such a context:

1. You have a clear view of your company’s business processes. No need to struggle to define the ‘as-is’ state during the business analysis phase of the implementation.
2. A clear view of the business processes and a high degree of alignment between the business strategy and the various departments allow for an easier mapping between the needs of the business and the internal capabilities, thus facilitating the transition from the ‘as-is’ state to the desired ‘to-be’
3. Last but not least, having the information in a well-structured and accessible form, helps improving the communication inside the organization. The project can only benefit from having everybody on the same page, and the benefits are not only in terms of outcome, but also from the point of view of team’s morale during the whole duration of the project.

While we all understand that this is an ideal situation, it would be interesting to learn how you are dealing with the imperfections of a not-so-ideal organisation while implementing change in your organization.