BUILDING CAPACITIES TO BECOME A LEARNING ORGANISATION
(PREVIOUSLY REFERRED TO AS SYSTEMS THINKING) WITHIN THE
PUBLIC SECTOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOTSWANA

    Background and Context
  • Work to-date and what we may expect to see happen going forward
  • What is Learning Organization (these programme were also originally
    referred to as Systems Thinking)?

    Workshop Part A:  Workshop on Understanding the Learning
    Organization Framework – Leaders for Learning
  • Anticipated Learning
  • Audience
  • Detailed Course Description
  • About the Facilitator
  • What you need to know about attending the Open Workshops?
  • What you need to know about attending the In-house Workshops?
  • What you need to know about attending the Sub-district Workshops?
  • Pre-readings

    Workshop Part B:  Strategic Planning Project Work Developing Key
    Success Loops Work Sessions


Work to-date and what we may expect to happen going forward

This project is the continuation of a series of programes we have had since
mid-2007 in understanding and using the work of Learning Organization (of
which Systems Thinking is one of the core disciplines).

Work in 2007:
The discipline and tools of Learning Organization and in particular Systems
Thinking was adopted following the facilitation at a cabinet (in Oct 2005) and
Permanent Secretaries’ (June 2007) retreats using the tools of Systems
Thinking which were both led by Ms Sheila Damodaran from Singapore. The
tools of Systems Thinking offered a systemic way of understanding (complex)
issues that had stayed resistant to change and implementation.

Since mid-2007, the trainer/facilitator/steward of this work, Ms Sheila
Damodaran had been working intermittently with senior management -
Permanent Secretaries, Deputy Permanent Secretaries, Directors, and
Performance Improvement Coordinators - across the public service of all
Ministries.  This paved the way to enable Ministries  develop organizational
strategies that capture, synthesize, and diffuse learning and enable
performance growth in a sustained way over time.

Work in 2008:
These were presented as Key Success Loops (KSL).  KSLs are a major
output of this system of work and they presents a systemic ‘picture’ of the
deepest challenges we face as a country and what has caused these issues to
stay resistant to our efforts to change them.

These pictures now provide insights on the turnaround that may happen to
reverse the effects of these challenges for us.  To do so, the work outlines
systemic strategies that may be developed for implementation across the
country.

To-date about 21 of such KSLs has been developed.  These were done this
year between April and June 2008.  Plans are afoot to develop the remaining
22 or so of such works and equip key senior, middle and leadership
management within Central and Local Government learn to help bring the
lessons of this work to personnel with their Ministries and parastatals.  All
Ministries have begun on that journey and several have also proceeded to
involve personnel in their Ministries.

Work in use towards NDP10:
These were used as input towards the drafting of the National Development
Plans 10 (NDP10) in mid 2008.  The intention was to help teams zoom in on
leverage action strategies (small well-focused actions) that had far-reaching
consequences without necessarily having to dig deep into our pockets to get
there.

Work going forward:
The purpose of this project is to even this playing field across the public sector.
It also became apparent during the NDP10 drafting review process that
anyone who is lacking in these skills can significantly impede the quality of
strategic interventions that we would use to lead change in this country.  This
was a gap that stood out glaringly during the NDP10 programmes.

This time the programmes would include more levels within the Central and
Local Government as well as our parastatals.  The programmes are intended
to develop our capacities in the areas of Leadership Development, Strategy
Development and Implementation; aspects we hope would spread across the
nation.

There are two parts to these programmes:
  1. Part A:  Series of workshop programmes (four modules spanning a total of
    eight days) that helps you learn to use the tools of this work.
  2. Part B:  On completing the workshops, you would be invited to participate in
    developing or using the Key Success Loops in Strategic Planning and
    Implementation

All of you would go through both parts.  Specifically, the project aims at training
all personnel in senior and mid-level leadership positions across the public
sector in understanding and using the (five) disciplines of this work for effective
leadership for improved performance in the public service.  Click here for notes
on planning for these sessions.


What is a Learning Organization?

It takes most everyday notions of learning, i.e. it is a process whereby
individuals enhance the capacity to do what they want and taking that to the
aggregate of organizations. So Learning Organization is really nothing more
than an organization that continually enhances the capacity to create outcomes
(as distinct from leaders having to manage performance) those members as a
whole really want to create.

It actually comprises five disciplines i.e. Personal Mastery, Shared Vision,
Mental Models, Team Learning and Systems Thinking. Each of the five
disciplines represents a lifelong body of study and practice for individuals and
teams in organizations.

Business and other human endeavors are systems, bound by invisible fabrics
of interrelated actions, which often take years (the process of change) to fully
play out their effects on each other. This is often the reason why issues
become resistant to change. And since we are part of the lacework, it’s doubly
hard to see the whole pattern of change.

Instead there is a deep tendency to see the changes we need to make as
being in our outer world, not in our inner world. The central message of the five
disciplines is more radical than “radical organization design” – which our
organizations and patterns of change work the way they work, ultimately
because of how we think and how we interact.

It is by changing how we think that we can change deeply embedded policies
and practices. Only by changing how we interact can shared visions, shared
understandings, and new capacities for coordinated action be established.

However, instead of the above, we tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts
of the system, and wonder why our deepest problems never seem to get
solved. Learning Organization is a conceptual framework, of knowledge and
tools, to make the full patterns clearer, and to help us see how to change them
effectively and often at substantially lower costs.

The central territory of the work is made up of three core processes:

  • Shifting from aiming for goals to members building and sharing
    aspirations.

  • Creating productive conversations (generative). This is a shift from
    talking at each other (advocacy) to talking with each other (inquiry).  
    Speak the truth but hold my truth as contingent. This allows the coming
    together of our thinking (harmonization of our thinking) because we see
    and appreciate the differences in the perspectives. It is only then that we
    work together.

  • Seeing the whole. People together can see the whole together.


For more information on this programme, contact Mr Mbakiso Gomucha Morapedi of
Office of the President at (+267) 3973045/3950906 or email him at mmorapedi@gov.
bw.
2009 - 2011