Learning Organizations

11 Pages 2743 Words

panies need to focus on generative learning or “double-loop learning”.
Generative learning emphasizes continuous experimentation and feedback in an ongoing examination of the very way organizations go about defining and solving problems. Generative learning is about creating and requires new ways of looking at the world. Generative learning requires that the system question its own underlying assumptions and risk fundamentally changing the terms of its own organizing. In this sense, generative learning is related with the idea of a self-organizing system.
In contrast, adaptive learning or single-loop learning focuses on solving problems in the present without examining the appropriateness of current learning behaviors. Adaptive organizations focus on incremental improvements, often based on the past track record of success. They don’t question the assumptions underlying the existing ways of doing work. The essential difference is between being adaptive and having adaptability.


To maintain adaptability, organizations need to operat...