Getting Started--Building Your KS&L Framework

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Since organizational learning involves changing processes and perhaps even policies, not to mention culture, getting management buy-in and commitment to organizational learning at the get-go is key to the effort’s success. One way to do this is to conduct a Learning NGO Questionnaire.^[1] Through a built-in scoring mechanism, this questionnaire will gauge the degree to which the participating NGO is learning—or not. The questionnaire should be done by stakeholders at different levels and with different perspectives. Additionally, those setting off to build a learning organization should be careful to incorporate a breadth of staff representatives from within the organization early on. Richardson warns that “delegating the design and implementation of knowledge management systems and practices to a small internal group will not result in a knowledge organization but in a knowledge management elite who may try to force people to adopt tools and processes that do not fit with their working lives.”^[2] Conversely, it may create a marginal knowledge management group that is not taken seriously by the rest of the organization.

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Notes

1. ↑ Steinlin, Marc (2006) The Learning Organization Questionnaire. Retrieved September 27, 2008 from http://www.knowledgeboard.com/download/3666/Learning-Questionnaire-for-kb.xls
2. ↑ Richardson, Don (2001). The Practical Reality of Knowledge Management within Development Initiatives, Telecommons Development Group.

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