A situational learning organization

An indicator for sustainable commitment to change in companies

An situational learning organization (SLO) is able to learn new patterns of action situationally which help organizations to cope better with new situations. Moreover, an SLO has the potential to harness the natural motivation of employees and creates conditions for genuine teamwork. By Manfred Brandstätter

THE PRINCIPLES OF AN SLO

A situational self-learning organization (SLO): ... is characterized by a maximum amount of members who think about the future of the company and consequently participate actively in the development of the company or take responsibility for it (self-organization and responsibility). ... perceives reality as it is and tries to develop new coping strategies instead of relying on old ones (systems thinking and integration). ... aligns its work design with the needs of its customers (decentralized decision-making and control). ... believes in the intrinsically existing potential of people and organizations for performance and further development (human image Y and modern leadership).

It would be misleading and even wrong to claim that an SLO can be packed into an organizational model or indeed to call it an organizational model in its own right. Rather, an SLO sees itself as a living, fluid organism that is constantly being reshaped in an interplay between trial and error and learning, between improving what has been tried and tested and creating something new. What underlies any SLO are principles on which it bases its thinking and actions. Thus, an SLO does not describe a new organizational form, but is rather an attribute, such as beautiful; it is therefore the ascription of an organization in the sense of self-learning. An SLO is often used in projects as an indicator to recognize that the company, after a completed change project, is able to further develop itself continuously through self-learning and to adapt to the changes. [4]

A SITUATIONAL LEARNING ORGANIZATION – FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SYSTEMS THEORY AND NEUROLOGY

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” The discovery of the neuroplasticity of our brain has removed the scientific basis for this popular saying. Neuroplasticity describes the ability of our brain to change synapses, nerve cells or entire brain areas for the purpose of optimizing ongoing processes. This ability forms the basis of our ability to learn – well into adulthood. This requires confrontation with and successful management of new situations. An SLO can be viewed from the perspective of Niklas Luhmann's sociological systems theory, as well as explained on the basis of recent findings in neurobiology – the neuroplasticity of our brain.

THE SYSTEMS THEORY PERSPECTIVE

The sociologist and social theorist Niklas Luhmann attributes the ability of autopoiesis, i.e. the ability to maintain and renew themselves, not only to biological organisms, but also to psychological and social systems. Thus, from a systems theory perspective, business organizations are also structured in such a way that they can (re-)constitute themselves perpetually from their own elements.

According to Luhmann, this behavior of an organization – if one also allows this as a manager – is a function of an inner mode of self-generation, which is perpetuated by the processing of one’s own behavior towards oneself and one’s environment. From a systems theory point of view, nothing would stand in the way of situational learning in organizations. [12]

THE NEUROLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Neurology also gives the green light for lifelong learning. Not only has the phenomenon of neuroplasticity of our brain proven that lifelong learning is theoretically possible. The ability of our brain to remember successes also supports this process. The messenger substances released in the midbrain during successful problem solution act like fertilizer on nerve cells and stimulate the continuation and new formation of connections. In this way, all those nerve cell connections that have proven to be suitable are strengthened and expanded. The next time a problem arises, the behavioral pattern anchored in the brain can be called upon, and we not only solve the problem faster, but often better as well. [8]

CONCEPTION OF MAN AND LEADERSHIP AS A SOCIAL PROCESS

Every person is naturally motivated and willing to perform. The task of the leader is to create framework conditions so that this potential can unfold. [13] The idea of SLOs is based on Douglas McGregor's conception of man. In the 1960s, he revolutionized the discussion about motivation and performance by contrasting the then widespread image of man X with the image of man Y (figure 1). The latter assumes that people are by nature willing, ready to perform and able to learn, and that these intrinsic characteristics cannot be developed into competencies through control and instruction, but through autonomy, personal responsibility and a sense of purpose. This perspective on the nature of human beings also significantly shapes the understanding of leadership in an SLO: leadership responsibility is understood as a social process in which the leader sees it as his or her task to create the best possible framework to enable self-organization. Extrinsic incentives to promote motivation or instructions that dictate how tasks are to be completed are alien to an SLO. Rather, an SLO consistently promotes a culture of trust: through proactive trust (trust does not have to be earned over a long period of time) and by encouraging self-control rather than exercising power through control systems or hierarchies. By consciously encouraging self-control, an SLO sets in motion continuous development triggered by those people who work directly on the processes and projects. They recognize potentials and can contribute decisively to finding solutions. In an SLO, improvements are not prescribed top-down.

SELF-ORGANIZATION AND RESPONSIBILITY

People have the ability to organize themselves and take responsibility. It is necessary to create framework conditions that allow them to exercise these abilities. The Y concept of human beings grants all participants responsibility for themselves and for creating their own lives, and thus also the duty to actively participate in shaping and assuming responsibility. An SLO creates the conditions for this with “genuine” teamwork: defined role descriptions ensure clarity about rights and duties, jointly developed goals and rules provide orientation, and ritualized events promote reflection and further development.

DECENTRALIZED DECISION AND CONTROL

Organizations need to put the needs of the customer at the center of their considerations. Decisions must be made where contextual and expert knowledge is available. If decisions are made by those people who are directly confronted with the problems and usually also have the most extensive contextual and expert knowledge for the respective situation, then this creates speed and most often customer satisfaction. Market and customer orientation coupled with high performance

are the goals of an SLO. To achieve this, it promotes structures that place the customer and his needs at the center of considerations and allow fast action and decision-making paths. An SLO knows that these structures also have to be adapted and partly reinvented continuously. All those events within an organization that support self-reflection are conducive to this.

SYSTEMS THINKING AND INTEGRATION

Problem solutions of our time can neither be found in the minds of a few decision-makers, nor are they simple and linear. In a time of paradigm shift, integration and versatility must be lived. An SLO accepts that a complex world cannot be met with linear, simple answers. Instead, it is important to train people to think and act in interdependencies: planning and controlling, experimenting and learning, improving what has been tried and tested, and creating something new. The solutions of the past are usually no good for this. Solution approaches in an SLO emerge from interactions with stakeholders, involving different personalities, preferences or thinking styles, in interdisciplinary and inter-functional teams. Simple rules, clear priorities and deliberate restraint can be conducive to this.

SITUATIONAL SELF-LEARNING – THE COPING STRATEGY IN VUCA

“Evolution has built learning capacity into us and did not intend an off button.” [6] VUCA is an acronym for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. It is often used to describe the modern, digitized world. The acronym has its origin in the linguistic usage of the American military. There, the term was adopted for a new situation after the Cold War. New strategies were required as a result. In the corporate world, VUCA describes a perpetually changing present or future that completely undermines known causal relationships: past experience is no longer useful in VUCA, and best-practice examples or tried-and-tested strategies are of very limited use, if any, for solving problems. Planning is hardly possible anymore. These phenomena are being accelerated by the advance of digitization. This situation is intensified by the possibilities offered by the new media, which on the one hand can lead to a more mature formation of opinion, but on the other hand also increases the feeling of insecurity. The situational, self-learning organization is a concept for organizations of any size and industry which recognizes the parameters of a VUCA world and responds accordingly. As figure 2 shows, the complexity and stability of the environment or organization influence the way the company is managed. A less complex and therefore more stable environment, such as we found at the beginning of the 20th century, required different coping strategies than the context and organizations of today: planning effectiveness decreased drastically in the last hundred years, the ability to adapt permanently, which was professionalized in the context of lean management and agile environments, is still necessary, but not sufficient. Adaptability does not ensure stability in the company. Even high innovation potential cannot do that. The organization of the future has to master situational pattern change. It must be able to find new solutions in rapidly changing circumstances repeatedly. The ability to successfully manage both the norm (for instance, in the form of standardized processes) and the state of exception (for instance, in the form of agile short-term adjustments or projects) will increasingly take center stage.

On the way to this organizational maturity, there are no tried-andtested solutions available. VUCA is increasingly undermining causal relationships. Individual, novel solutions are necessary. Companies can only meet these requirements if they understand how to learn situationally. What companies need to rediscover is their ability to learn: from situations, individually and sustainably. The situational learning organization believes in its inherent potential to evolve. Throughout the history of civilization, this biologically inherent potential has helped people to change and develop over and over again. This potential must be activated through targeted framework conditions and through an appropriate culture and leadership.

HOW TO SUPPORT SELF-LEARNING IN COMPANIES

“Experimentation and trial and error is the new mantra in leadership circles”. [3] All agile formats, frameworks and methods, such as Scrum, Scribble, Design Thinking, Kanban, Management 3.0, and many more, create frameworks and thereby new forms of cooperation that enable ritualized trial and error, experimentation, and situational self-learning from the insights gained, and/or increase problem-solving competence. Based on the PLAN-DO-CHECK-ADAPT cycle [7], the “ritualized cycle of self-learning” – as it is established in modern working methods – is shown in figure 3. The principles of an SLO largely align with the principles and values of the agile manifesto. [1] All agile formats, frameworks, and methods believe in intrinsically motivated people who are willing to perform, in the need to bring in the knowledge and skills of all stakeholders to face the modern world, and in the potential for further development in any organization. They provide the stimulus that supports this change because it exemplifies self-organization, adaptability, and a culture of responsibility. People react differently to restricted opportunities for development. While some withdraw, resign internally or officially, others seek (at least temporary) opportunities to fulfill their motivation and ideas. These makeshift structures do not, of course, utilize formal structures in the company’s organizational, operational or decisionmaking framework. Instead, they rely on internal agreements, experiments, exemptions, project formats and a great deal of initiative and, in some cases, risk-taking on the part of those involved. This can be perfectly permissible for a certain period of time and can also provide necessary impulses. In the long term, however, the goal of corporate management should be to achieve a high degree of congruence between formal and informal structures. Experience from many years of organizational design has shown that the degree of congruence between formal (documented) Fig. 3: Ritualized cycle of self-learning.

and informal (lived) structures in traditionally organized companies is fundamentally less pronounced than in flexible, agile, i.e. self-learning, and autonomous team and management structures. The way towards this, in addition to the formats listed in the longer version of this text in the GlobalCONTACT app, can be via so-called shelter projects [5] or via a gradual increase of agile projects and processes. Positive experiences of those involved help to increase acceptance. Acceptance also comes with success. For this reason, the agile formats, frameworks and methods also place great emphasis on continuous improvement through processes such as retrospectives. The path to an attractive SLO that performs well in dynamic markets therefore involves interplay of impulses from the teams as well as the management culture. This is the only way to ensure that true congruence of formal and informal structures can be achieved, and that the potential for situational selflearning can be harnessed.

Editor´s note: This is an abridged version of the article. You can find the full-length text in the GlobalCONTACT app. It includes, among other things, a checklist that you can use to see how far along the road to an SLO your company already is, as well as referenced sources and literature for further exploration of the topic.

Translator's note: Quotes have been translated from the German version of this text.

Illustrations: Sandra Brandstätter

Manfred Brandstätter is an organization designer and business trainer as well as a founding member and lecturer of a business management university course. For more than twenty years, he has worked as the responsible person for organizational projects in national and international companies. In addition, he was managing director of start-up companies in Germany and Austria. For many years he has also been passing on his experience in workshops and trainings. He lives in Bonn, Germany, and is the author of various publications with a focus on "self-efficacy in organizations". He has overall responsibility for developing Scribble, the method collection for agile process management.