Learning Infrastructures
Learning infrastructure gives people the time, tools, connections, and authority to learn as part of their work. Training has limited value when job responsibilities and resource allocation prevent people from using it.
THE IDEA
8. DEVELOPING LEARNING INFRASTRUCTURES
Learning infrastructures support the use of new ideas and methods in daily work. When organizations like Intel or Ford or DTE Energy or Nike create or redefine management roles to support reflection or systems thinking, they create learning infrastructures. So do managers who establish regular practice fields or invest in technologies for sharing information and enabling working groups to connect with each other more easily. Yet, this area is often overlooked—perhaps because innovations in infrastructures are not as dramatic as articulating new guiding ideas, or as concrete as new tools and methods. But it makes little sense to articulate guiding ideas that do not align with how resources are allocated, nor is it helpful to introduce people to tools and methods that they have little opportunity to use.
Learning infrastructures do not leave learning to chance. The history of how the quality movement in Japan took off provides a compelling example of the importance of learning infrastructures. In the 1950s and early 1960s, experts like W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran taught top managers basic principles (guiding ideas). Afterward, many people were trained in basic tools like statistical process control. But several years later, a few companies like Toyota realized that they needed to train frontline workers in these tools, and, most importantly, redefine their job responsibilities so they had the authority to analyze and improve their own processes. Without these changes in job responsibilities, quality control would have remained the responsibility of experts—not the workers themselves—and working and learning would not have become integrated.
When to use it
A manufacturing company redefines the role of team leads to include facilitating reflection sessions and systems thinking discussions.
A school district allocates time and resources for teachers to participate in professional learning communities as part of their regular schedule.
A tech company invests in a knowledge-sharing platform and encourages cross-team collaboration to build a learning infrastructure.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Toyota's Quality Movement
In the 1950s and 1960s, Toyota realized that for quality control to be effective, frontline workers needed not only training in tools like statistical process control but also the authority to analyze and improve their own processes. This redefinition of job responsibilities integrated working and learning.
Management Role Redefinition at Intel
Senge describes companies such as Intel redefining management roles to support reflection and systems thinking. The organizational role, rather than training alone, supplies time and responsibility for learning.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
How can your organization redesign job responsibilities to integrate learning into daily work?
What learning infrastructures exist in your organization, and how effective are they in supporting continuous improvement?
In what ways do current resource allocations hinder or help the development of learning infrastructures?
Often confused with
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- The Fifth Discipline The Art Practice of the Learning Organization (Peter M. Senge)