Beyond the Phoenix Project by Gene Kim

Author:Gene Kim
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: IT Revolution Press

Module 6

Learning Organizations

Gene Kim: So far, we’ve covered Dr. Goldratt and Dr. Deming in Modules 2 and 3. In Modules 4 and 5 we covered Lean and safety culture, the two fields that DevOps draws from most. At the risk of oversimplifying, you and I have both concluded that there’s absolutely something in common with all of these, and that is learning. There’s a saying that goes, “The purpose of a learning organization is to out-learn the competition.” John, what are learning organizations, and where did that concept come from?

John Willis: We’ve talked about Andrew Shafer throughout this work, and I think we both love one of his quotes, actually in our DevOps Handbook, where he says, “You’re either a learning organization, or you’re losing to someone who is.” I think if we had to go back and look at the father, what most people consider the father of learning organizations, you would go to Peter Senge. Peter Senge, here again, another MIT Sloan guy, but his probably most famous prominent work is something called The Fifth Discipline, and that was actually originally written in 1990. Just to be completely honest, not an easy book to complete. I think one of the jokes is that everyone talks about it but nobody’s actually completed it.

Gene: And I, too, find it very challenging, and there’s a book that’s allegedly easier to read called The Field Guide to Learning Organizations, and I found that equally challenging, so you’re not alone.

John: So, maybe we’re challenged; I don’t know. One of the things I love, when I bent back and started doing some research in earnest about learning organizations, and a lot of that driven by Andrew Shafer and some of his presentations that we’ll mention later, but one of the first things I found—a little coincidence—is actually in the first edition of The Fifth Discipline. Peter Senge, by the way, Deming was still alive, he sent him a copy to say, “Hey, Dr. Deming, I would love for you to review this,” and Dr. Deming wrote back a letter to him, and actually Peter Senge had admitted that he had actually changed some of the content in the second edition. But if you let me, I’d love to read Deming’s letter that he sent back to Senge, which is such a classic Deming.

You know our prevailing systems of management have destroyed our people. People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-respect, dignity, curiosity to learn, and joy in learning. The forces of destruction begin with toddlers. A prize for the best Halloween costume, grades in school, gold stars, and up on through the university. On the job, people teams and divisions are ranked—rewarded for the top and punished for the bottom. Management by objectives, quotas, incentive pay, business plans, put together separately, division by division, cause further loss, unknown and unknowable.1

This was almost like he was lecturing him, and the whole idea about people and how we let our systems degrade our people. But the other thing.

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