Just as people are capable of learning individually and gradually, any company can also do so if it decides to articulate the unique capabilities of people, orienting this action towards the construction of an intelligent organization.
What is the concept of smart organization?
We can talk about this when the people who make it up accept to learn in a group, realizing in the course of the exciting journey how reality is being created from the actions they carry out together. They discover in this movement, a key factor: they make up a system and it is capable of continuously expanding its capacity to achieve expected results, let's say that they are making their future, while they develop learning.
Although in the business universe everyone agrees on the value of teamwork, only an intelligent organization is fully aware that: only when the members of a group see themselves configuring a system, is when they achieves the beginning of what is called a highly competitive team, one with the power at hand to achieve extraordinary results.
But what is a system?
It could be defined for its understanding as a set of interrelated variables that in turn communicate and exchange with the environment.
The variables would be the staff of a company, the environment, what makes the business world clients, suppliers, competition, etc.
How important is it that a team member assumes himself as part of a system?
If you can incorporate this way of seeing yourself, your responsibility and commitment to peers and to the task increases. We will give an example. It begins to be less frequent to compute errors to colleagues, self-observation is imposed in order to correct the errors and perfect the system. Each member is then responsible for the functionality of the team for the coordination of actions.
This improves interpersonal relationships, conflicts are resolved creatively, communication seeks channels, time is saved, and energy is channeled into strategies designed to achieve objectives, without unnecessary loss.
Over time, leadership in these teams may rotate, given the mental evolution they present in terms of team and generative learning deployment.
The distinctive quality of this type of learning is the acquisition of practices that, emerging from a human system, gradually imprint a specific culture on the organization. The solid sense of belonging that comes from creating the future of the company, defines what is called organizational identity.
On the other hand, the alignment of the teams is perfectly coordinated with the vision, mission and values of the organization and this comes from enthusiasm, not from compliance. There is awareness in each of the members that they are part of something that transcends and summons them.
As in individual learning, the gathering of information does not ensure effectiveness in the team. Although this is important, as well as mastering the technical skills corresponding to the position he occupies within the organization, they are not enough in terms of the efficiency of the work teams. The effectiveness of the tasks requires the essential complements mentioned above.
Finally, why is it essential to achieve high-performance teams in organizations?
Most large companies do not exceed half the average lifespan of a human being. The organizational learning then provides essential tools to survive in the market and grow.
Arie de Geus, Shell's director of planning and author of "The Living Company, Habits for Survival in the Turbulent World of Business", throws a phrase that deserves extreme attention: "The ability to learn may be our only competitive advantage."
