Thanks for posting this resource. The concept of the learning organization fascinates me. I value being part of a learning organization and have recently been reflecting on the development of a learning organization culture.

In the document attached it is noted that a culture of leadership at all levels is one of the characteristics necessary for a learning organization. In collaboration, we are working with many individuals from all different organizational cultures and I feel it is even more important than ever to develop learning in collaborations. 

In my previous job, I attempted to develop a culture of learning in our collaboration. We were on a journey together for 5 years and although there was a "road map" (a model and draft plans)developed a few years prior, we all had to be open to the concept of change. We were working with communities that are evolving systems and I felt we had to be willing to learn from each other, from diverse perspectives, in order to experiment and innovate to develop different initiatives that led to positive impacts for children and families.

When reflecting on how we got there, I look at all the elements of a Learning Organization as described in the Horizons document and believe the element of TRUST is missing from the list. If, as a collaborative team of Partners and Staff, we did not trust each other, we could not truly develop a learning collaborative. We did "provide a safe space for thinking, creating and experimenting" but we couldn't do this without developing trusting relationships first.

How did we do it? An ongoing strategy of relationship development which included 'get to know you' sessions, numerous icebreakers intended to develop deeper personal relationships, celebrations of our successes, inclusion of the whole collaboration in decision-making processes, email updates and ongoing communciations about projects, face-to-face meetings in each Partners location, being vulnerable when things were going wrong or we were coming up to some hard strategic decisions, but most importantly, a willingness to be honest and show vulnerability when we didn't meet our desired outcomes or we didn't know how a project was going to develop. Numerous ongoing, regular and consistent strategies culminated to help us develop our trusting relationships and our learning organization. It was not an add-on, it was who we were.

Over the past four years we did redesigned our initiatives based on our desired goals and outcomes, which meant making hard decisions and taking risks. We developed a new strategic plan, goals, and operational initiatives.

One question that comes up for me when thinking of developing a learning organization is, how important is the organizational leader in development of the learning organization? I understand Senge's concept of leadership at all levels and agree leadership does take place at all levels in organizations. If the organizations leader wasn't engaged in the strategy or concept, can a learning organization be developed?

I'm interested in others experience and perspective in this regard and invite your comments.