Senge wrote a description of “the Learning Organization” in his 1990 book, THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE. That book and subsequent books by him and others made it obvious:
Manifesting a Learning Organization is far more difficult than describing one. (The Culture Game book, page 23)
In my book The Culture Game, I explain the following:
1. The software development environment is a complex and harsh place to actually SHIP anything, unless and until you get the “team” thing figured out;
2. The harshness of this situation, leading to colossal failures in software development, costing tens of millions in some cases, led to the Agile Manifesto and the Agile movement;
3. Agile practices, under the “cover story” and mandate of streamlining software engineering, have actually cracked the code on how to build a true Learning Organization, a small-sized unit we call a Team. The Agile movement has blessed the world with this work. We now know how to build a organization that learns….we know how to build a Genius Organization !
4. Agile practices actually build small Learning Organizations. We call them Teams. If we distill and extract the lessons learned from Agile software development, we can build Learning Organizations at scale. This is the entire premise of The Culture Game book.
Now I am looking for others who have asserted this idea before 2012 in a book. I want to identify and interact with and HONOR these authors!
So…..
I am now asking you for help:
If you know of any book published before 2012 that asserts that Agile practices are in fact A-B-C steps for building a genuine and authentic Learning Organization, please send me the Amazon link.
Send it to: dan [at] newtechusa <dot> net
I am very interested in honoring any book authors that have made this connection.
I believe we are on the verge of extending Agile ideas and genuine organizational learning from teams to tribes and eventually, to entire enterprises.
Thank you for your help !