The Learning Organization A learning organization is an organization that actively creates, acquires, and transfers knowledge within itself and is able to modify its behavior to reflect new knowledge. According to Senge from MIT, learning organizations are places "where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together. This activity is important because learning is a key component of organizational success. The goal of this exercise is to challenge your knowledge of what learning organizations are and how to build them. Read each manager's behavior and match it to the learning organization type it describes. 1 Create a learning organization by modifying behavior 2 Build a learning organization by generalizing ideas with impact 3 Create a learning organization by transferring knowledge 4 Create a learning organization by creating and acquiring knowledge 6 Build a learning organization by building a commitment to learning Build a learning organization by generating ideas with impact 5 Match each of the options above to the items below. Estrella likes to keep the company on top of its game by keeping her eye on the industry and the company's competitors and hiring the best and brightest talent. Connor likes to schedule a weekly "best practices" lunch meeting where he gathers the managers and has them share their ideas on how to solve problems and produce better results. Renee looks at how much an employee or manager is using new and best practices when she completes their performance feedback appraisal. Rufus has decided that he is going to invest part of his budget into a fund to provide employees with college tuition reimbursement and is going to hold an information luncheon to let employees know of this opportunity Victoria came up with the idea to sponsor her managers on a "creativity retreat twice a year where they are encouraged to brainstorm and develop new product ideasthe same idea as a skunk-works program. Manuel believes and has started to promote the idea that even failures are valuable learning experiences. In order to encourage employees to share about their successes and failures, he tries to let them know they won't be ridiculed and they are in a safe environment