Timeline
of Learning Organization Concepts |
1938
|
In
his book Experience and Education, John Dewey publishes the concept
of experiential learning as an ongoing cycle of activity. |
1947s
|
Macys
Conferences organized by Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson and Lawrence
Kubie bring "systems thinking" to the awareness of a cross-disciplinary
group of key intellectuals. |
1940s
|
Scottish
psychologist Kenneth Craik coins the term "mental models," which later
makes its way to MIT through Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert. |
1946
|
National
Training Laboratories co-founder Kurt Lewin proposes idea of "creative
tension" between a person's vision and sense of reality. |
1956
|
Jay
Forrester begins developing "system dynamics" |
Ed
Schein's research on brainwashing in Korea paves way for understanding
of process consultation. |
1960
|
The
Human Side of Enterprise (Douglas McGregor) is published. |
1961
|
Industrial
Dynamics (Jay Forrester) is published. This first major application
of system dynamics to corporations, describes the turbulence of orders
in a typical appliance value chain. |
1964
|
MIT
graduate students develop the "beer game" to illustrate Industrial Dynamics,
one of the first simulations of systems (conveniently converting toasters
to beer) |
1969
|
Urban
Dynamics (Jay Forrester) is published, codifying the "Shifting the
Burden" archetype |
1970
|
Chris
Argyris and Donald Schön begin their collaboration into "Action Science,"
the study of how espoused values clash with the values that underlie
real actions. |
1972
|
Limits
to Growth (Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows, et al) is published,
applying Forrester's systems dyuamics to the "world problematique" for
the Club of Rome, triggering a furious reaction from economists. |
1973
|
Learning
to Plan and Planning to Learn (Don Michael) is published, a book
for policy makers that sets out the idea of organizational learning
for the first time. |
1971-1975
|
Erhard
training seminars (est) demonstrate the powerful attitude shifts that
can come about in a seminar lasting several days. |
1974
|
Theory
in Practice (Chris Argyris, Donald A. Schön) is published. |
1975
|
"Management
change" consultant Charlie Kiefer, Forrester student Peter Senge, and
"creative process" researcher/artist Robert Fritz design the "leadership
and mastery" seminar that becomes the focal point of their new consulting
firm, Innovation Associates. |
1982
|
Working
at Procter & Gamble, and helping them follow up their famously secretive
sociotechnical systems work, Forrester alumna and Innovation Associates
consultant Jennifer Kemeny, along with Kiefer and Senge, develops the
"systems archetypes" -- a technique for translating system dynamics
complexities into relatively simple conversation-starters. |
Pierre
Wack, scenario planner at Royal Dutch/Shell, spends a sabbatical at
Harvard Business School, and for the first time writes his article about
scenario practice as a learning activity. |
1984
|
Senge,
Arie de Geus, Hanover Insurance CEO Bill O'Brien, Analog Devices CEO
Ray Stata, and other executive leaders form a learning organization
study group, meeting regularly at MIT. |
1985
|
Action
Science (Chris Argyris, Robert Putnam, Diana McLain Smith) is published.
|
1987
|
Drawing
on this group's work, Senge and de Geus begin working on a book together,
brokered by Shell networker Napier Collyns, who introduces them to Doubleday
editor Harriet Rubin. de Geus publishes his ideas in a key Harvard Business
Review article, called "Planning as Learning," in which he concludes,
"The greatest competitive advantage for any organization is its ability
to learn." |
1988
|
Peter
Schwartz, Stewart Brand, Napier Collyns, Jay Ogilvy, and Lawrence Wilkinson
form the networked organization Global Business Network, with a charter
to foster organizational learning through scenario planning. |
1989
|
Senge
and de Geus decide that they should develop separate books. Senge finishes
his manuscript, for a book ultimately titled The Fifth Discipline,
a few months after his second son is born. |
Oxford
University management scholar Bill Isaacs, an associate of quantum physicist
David Bohm's, introduces Senge to Bohm and to the concept of dialogue
as a process for building team capability. |
The Center for
Organizational Learning is formed at MIT, with Senge as director,
and with Ed Schein, Chris Argyris, Arie de Geus, Ray Stata, and Bill
O'Brien as key advisors and governors. The research staff of the "learning
center," as it's called, includes Daniel Kim and systems researcher
Janet Gould; later, Bill Isaacs, Fred Kofman, and future "Dance of
Change" coauthor George Roth will join the staff.
|
Daniel
Kim, MIT researcher on the links between learning organization work
and the quality movement, cofounds the Sytems Thinker newsletter, the
first ongoing publication of "fifth discipline" - related issues with
writer/editor Colleen Lannon-Kim. The parent organization, Pegasus Communictions,
launches an annual Systems Thinking in Action Conference the following
year. |
The
Age of Unreason (Charles Handy) is published. |
1990
|
The
Fifth Discipline is published, drawing upon a large body of work: system
dynamics, "personal mastery" (based on Fritz' work and the concept of
creative tension), mental models (based on Wack's and Argyris' work),
shared vision (drawing on the organizational change traditions at Innovation
Associates), and team learning (drawing on dialogue and David Bohm's
concepts). |
1992
|
The
popularity of the "learning organization" community is recognized when
350 people from around the world gather for four days at a conference
at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. |
1993
|
Harvard
University professor David Garvin publishes an article in the Harvard
Business Review on organizational learning, arguing that only learning
that can be measured will be useful to managers. |
1994
|
-The
Fifth Discipline Fieldbook is published. Its authors include Peter
Senge along with longstanding learning organization consultants Charlotte
Roberts, Rick Ross, and Bryan Smith (who is also the president of Innovation
Associates of Canada), along with writer Art Kleiner, who becomes editorial
director. The "Fieldbook" concept becomes a new management book genre.
|
Philip
J. Carroll becomes CEO of Shell Oil Company, and fosters a four-year
"transformation" initiative that will involve Shell Oil deeply with
organizational learning. |
The
innovation of "learning histories," a method of using oral history techniques
to assess organizational learning, begins at the Center for Organizational
Learning. |
1995
|
The
first major visible Organizational Learning Center projects are finished.
Many of them have produced remarkable results, but they also have led
to disappointing career prospects for the line leaders who invested
in them —particularly for the two featured in The Fifth Discipline
Fieldbook, the 1994 Ford Lincoln Continental and the GS Technologies
dialogue project. |
The
Organizational Learning Center begins a two year process, working with
Dee Hock, a founding CEO of VISA, to spring out into a more general
international consortium called the Society for Organizational Learning.
Peter Senge is named the first chairperson of SoL's elected governing
council. |
A
series of workshops and sessions take place, building on sessions that
started in 1993 at the Learning Center, then at the Society for Organizational
Learning, and then sponsored by the Fieldbook authors, to develop a
better understanding of the forces that make it difficult to sustain
organizational learning (and other change) projects. These lead to an
unpublished paper, "The Ecology of Leadership," by Peter Senge, which
develops the idea of innate "challenges of profound change." |
1996
|
Arthur
D. Little buys Innovation Associates; it is one of several consulting
firms (others include Anderson Consulting and Ernst & Young) that
invest heavily in building "learning organization" capability. |
The
Age of Heretics (Art Kleiner) is published;
Synchronicity (Joe Jaworski) is published. |
1997
|
Jack
Welch asserts in the General Electric annual report that GE's only competitive
advantage is its ability to learn. |
The
Living Company (Arie de Geus) is published. |
1999
|
The
Dance of Change, built around ten "Challenges of Profound Change,"
is published. |