IV. Phase B:
Feedback and Learning Tools
The two applications in this chapter center on Phase B of the A-B-C-D Systems Model: feedback loop. As we have seen, the question associated with this phase is:
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How will we know we have reached our outcomes, purposes, or goals? |
With these Phase B tools, you will better understand the connections between feedback and learning, and get a good idea of what is involved in creating a learning organization.
| TOOL NO. | THE APPLICATIONS |
| 15. |
Feedback and Learning |
| 16. |
Reinforcement and the Learning Organizaton |
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These Tools Will Help You Bring Learning to the Organization!
Application of Standard Systems Dynamics
— 5. Feedback
A. FEEDBACK
Feedback loops should be created for all systems levels (e.g., individuals, teams, HR programs, business processes) and used regularly to measure desired outcomes and actual success versus planned success. Each person in the company should take some time each week to reflect on what he or she has learned through these loops.
| Feedback = Learning = Learning Organization |
| Feedback is “the breakfast of champions” Learning consists of knowledge, skills, and attitude |
It is important to understand that knowledge itself is an input, and that learning comprises not just knowledge, but also skills and attitude. You cannot use the knowledge of how to meet a clearly defined and agreed-upon objective unless you also possess the skills (abilities and readiness) to carry through on that knowledge and have the attitude (willingness or desire) needed to do so.
| GUIDELINES FOR USE | |
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Ask yourself and your team if there is a feedback mechanism in place for everything you and they do, and if each mechanism offers a way to turn information into new learnings and new applications. Also ask whether people in your organization improve skills and attitude. (Keep in mind that this requires practice—not one-hour or one-day briefings.) |
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B. LEARNING
Figure 6 shows how knowledge, skills, and attitude come together in the learning of managerial effectiveness. A more detailed view of learning in general is shown in Figure 7, “The Stairway to Learning.” Use it to examine your own growth and development as a life-long learner in all types of human dimensions.
FIGURE 6. Managerial Effectiveness Triangle
| GUIDELINES FOR USE | |
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1. Recognize the different kinds of learnings and the steps involved in learning and applying new knowledge and skills. (For a four-page article on this topic, contact the Centre for Strategic Management at 619-275-6528). 2. Teach the Stairway of Learning to your family, team, and organization. Be especially aware of Step 1: “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Finding organizational “best practices” is the most effective way to get beyond Step 1. |
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C. UNDERSTANDING THE THREE COMPONENTS OF LEARNING
Most of us don’t really understanding learning and their combined role of knowledge, skills, and attitude. We know much more about the activity of teaching, which is only one method for helping people learn. A brief primer on basics:
“Adults Learn Best by Doing”
But to really learn from experience, you must process the experience. Otherwise, you may “learn” the wrong thing.
FIGURE 7. THE STAIRWAY OF LEARNING
Exercise: What Do You Do Well to Facilitate Learning?
Ask yourself, “What do I, or we as an organization, do well in the area of learning?” Answer by distributing 10 points across the learning components, shown below.
| Learning Components | How It Is Today | How You Want It to Be |
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1. Knowledge 2. Skills 3. Attitude Total Points |
________ ________ ________ 10 |
________ ________ ________ 10 |
| GUIDELINES FOR USE | ||||||||||||||
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1. What are you teaching and changing? How are you doing it? Consider these questions in light of the following:
2. Consider experiential lectures and participative training techniques as a way to facilitate learning. Here are some possibilities:
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Application of Standard Systems Dynamics
— 5. Feedback
A. REINFORCEMENT OF LEARNING
Are you trying to create a learning organization? Or are you just trying to maximize your retention of the learning experiences you have? In either case, you need to pay attention to the need for continuous feedback and reinforcement of learning.
There are a variety of methods for sustaining new behaviors, including challenge, recognition, and support. Repetition is also a key factor in reinforcement! You should build these methods into all of your learning events and learning opportunities.
Yearly Reinforcement, Bit by Bit
Reinforcing training in bite-sized chunks is an excellent way to approach this necessity. Use a 52-week reinforcement program, organizing it as shown in a sample on the next page. Record the topic of learning and the other details you need to ensure the learning efforts in your organization meet with long-term success.
FIGURE 8. SAMPLE: 52-WEEK TRAINING REINFORCEMENT PROGRAM
| TOPIC | WEEK | TRAINER | TIME |
| 1. | |||
| 2. | |||
| 3. | |||
| 4. |
| GUIDELINES FOR USE | |
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Other follow-up ideas for learning reinforcement include: • Contracting for challenge/support • Setting up a buddy system, lunches, and so on. Use a freefloating agenda, built at each meeting. • Creating small groups or teams to teach and review each learning, to see what is working and what is not • Following up every few months (holding “alumni sessions”) |
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B. MINI-TEAM FEEDBACK—RULE OF THREE
At the end of every group meeting and training session, you should hold a mini-feedback session, at least two or three minutes long, on how the meeting process (not content) went and how to learn from it and improve it. This minisession acts as a meeting-processing guide. Use the following threefold formula as an introduction:
In looking at the time frame of this meeting, and to make the next meeting’s process work even more (or as) effectively, I recommend we …
1. Continue to do the following: [supply details].
2. Do more of [or begin doing] the following: [supply details].
3. Do less of [or stop doing] the following: [supply details].
| GUIDELINES FOR USE | |
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1. At the end of every meeting, conference, or team/project effort, use the mini-session threefold formula. It only takes a few minutes to do this, and it gets you useful feedback to improve whatever you are doing. 2. Close the mini-session by asking, “If you were to talk to a good friend about this meeting, what would you tell him or her about it?” |
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C. THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION
There are a number of elements integral to organizing and creating a learning organization, many of which are included in the learning-organization checklist on the following page. When you are attempting this kind of change, it is important to realize that the organization’s internal capacity for responding to and initiating change is linked to its capacity for learning, feedback and organizational renewal.
For Example
Systems design and redesign call for the capacity for renewal, because as soon as a design is implemented, its consequences indicate a need for redesign. Therefore:
1. A learning system must be built in to whatever restructuring you do.
2. Adapting processes (debriefing, ongoing feedback) must be developed and implemented.
As this example suggests, the best system is an inexact adaptive-learning, ideal-seeking system. Such a system helps you deal constructively with the problem of entropy (see Chapter I for more on this topic) and ensures the organization’s capacity for renewal meets its crucial need.
D. FEEDBACK AND RENEWAL SYSTEMS
Organizations have life cycles just as human do. One of the big differences, however, is that organizations can “renew” and rebuild themselves into completely different organizations, starting all over again. Phase B, Feedback Loop (from the environment) is a crucial variable at the start of this process. So is having a new future vision (Phase A) to act as a magnet, directing everyone forward to the “renewed” organization.
For Example
A good example of large-scale renewal is what Jack Welch has done at General Electric. Another is IBM, which is well on its way to becoming a brand-new company as a systems service provider (while keeping its old company as a mainframe manufacturer). Being a learning organization and using environmental scanning and feedback are the keys to this.
Remember that …
Learning organizations cultivate the art of open, attentive listening. Managers must be open to criticism.
Renewal Practices Questionnaire
The following questionnaire lists 35 practices that contribute to and support organizational renewal. Which of them can be found in your organization?
E. STRATEGIC EDUCATION MODEL
Real learning in an organization requires knowledge and skills, as well as the right attitude. And to affect organizational change, it must move up from the individual to teams and to the organization as a whole. These levels are essential to creating a learning organization.
Exercise: Strategic Model
Place an H, M, or L in each box to show the levels of learning going on for either (1) you, (2) your department, or (3) your organization as a whole.
