The Need for the Learning Organization

One of the most impactful business books I’ve read is "The Fifth Discipline" by Peter Senge. In it, he cites five disciplines needed for leaders to understand and address: personal mastery, building a shared vision, mental models, team learning, and system thinking. What stands out most though is a phrase I learned for the first time: "The Learning Organization."

The need for continuous learning has come into sharper focus as enduringly successful organizations cite this as an essential part of their core business strategy. Here’s why.

Advances in technology, changes in customer choices, new and non-traditional competition and ever-increasing options for core products and services require a systematic process for keeping pace. External “environmental scanning” and other strategic planning techniques help. Raising the level of understanding of business acumen (and yes, finance) among key employees is even better.

It may come as no surprise that many employees have had little or no training in basic finance. This includes supervisors, managers and even key executives who have made their way with a focus on select business disciplines (sales, operations, marketing, etc.) yet lack a fundamental knowledge of basic business and finance.

How a business makes money, why profits matter and what they enable a business to do, the impact of mistakes and inattention to detail, the importance of serving key customers and keeping competitors at bay and why expenses need to be managed so closely are all elements of a comprehensive business and financial training program. Teaching basic finance to your employees has an additional benefit. In many cases, team members report that their increased understanding has helped them at home with their own personal budgeting and financial controls.

There are many training tools available that can help facilitate learning in your organization. Among these is "Beyond the Bottom Line," a basic primer for teaching finance to the “non-financial manager.”  For more information on getting started including sample chapter, contact me at joe@ajstrategy.com.