Creating A Discipline Of Learning In Your Organization
True Success Is Within Your Reach, If You Can Survive The Buzzwords And Find A Disciplined Teacher
Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Learning Organization, Big Data, Data-driven, Fact-based, DDDM, DDI, Data Science, Decision-making, etc. It is a veritable buzzword soup of distractions.
Defining the need
Organizations need to learn. Organizations that don’t learn, fail. It may not happen overnight, but it is inevitable. But what is learning?
A Learning Organization is one that embeds feedback into its processes. It collects data, measures results, and adapts to insights & change. Learning organizations create accountability. They out think, out maneuver, and out perform their competitors. They learn. They win. It is that SIMPLE.
Adding Measurement
Learning organizations utilize data. They are data-driven. They embrace measurement and reporting. They define their actions and read their results. Compared to their competitors, they are QUANTIFIED.
Controlling the Process
The final component in defining learning includes practice, repetition, patience, and structure. This is the hard part. It is not something that comes from a box or a new technology. It requires DISCIPLINE.
Organizational Learning is Simple Quantified Discipline
Humans can be taught through any number of feedback systems. From cognitive behavioral therapy to Pavlovian training models (which aren’t too far apart on many levels), human’s learn through any number of positive and negative reinforcement techniques.
Organizations don’t feel. They certainly suffer the effects of negative feedback, but not in a constructive way. Negative feedback tends to destroy an organization. And while humans may conform to Nietzsche, organizations just don’t. The turnover created by severe negative feedback actually destroys the memory of the organization. A learning organization is less susceptible to this, as much of this memory is quantified, but you can never record all of an organization’s experiences. Effectively, attrition becomes a feedback loop, with poor outcomes driving attrition. Attrition drives reduced memory and that can drive further negative behavior.
Simple Quantified Discipline
Through a series of steps that improve organizational data accessibility, an organization can enhance and exploit positive feedback more fully. It is not difficult but it requires the right tools and discipline. Those tools are rarely found in the list of highly promoted industry buzzwords. They are not budget killers.
They do require discipline. They do require a teacher. Call it an Analytic Service Provider, if you will? Your ASP can help you create the access you need to change your culture. They will provide the quantification you need to make the most of positive feedback and measurement. But most of all, they need to have the discipline you need to make this successful.
Poor discipline will fail. It will fail to meet timelines. It will fail to meet budget. Most importantly, it will fail to meet your needs.
Enhancement
A solid infrastructure, a solid process, and solid discipline will position your organization for success. It will also open the doors to that buzzword soup. Some of these terms, like Deep Learning, can be very effective when they are an extension or enhancement to a disciplined learning organization. But NOT before…
Even then, the next phase should be punctuated with more classic buzzwords like forecasting, ROI analysis, pro-formas, and experimental design. There are stages to learning and they require discipline as well.
Thanks for reading and look for additional articles on these concepts in the future!
