Learning architectures: linking organisation and people

Profound change and crises confront companies worldwide with demanding needs for change and development, in which a dual strategy is always essential. On the one hand, the organisation’s internal performance in terms of efficiency and productivity must be increased with all its strength. On the other hand, the company must be strategically aligned with future challenges.

The simultaneity of these two requirements has a paradoxical character and poses considerable challenges for corporate management.

The volatility of the relevant environments requires organisations to react quickly and flexibly to changes in them in order to remain viable. Companies are often faced with occasions for organisational development that can only be mastered under two conditions. The organisation is fundamentally developed further in its established structures and processes. At the same time, important actors in the company increase their key qualifications with regard to the organisational changes.

It is precisely this coordinated learning that is a critical prerequisite for success. It matters whenever far-reaching changes in important business processes are pending. This means changes whose mastery requires entirely new patterns of cooperation in mutual coordination and, at the same time, a build-up of competence among the actors.

In these cases it is essential to combine processes of organisational change wisely with qualification measures tailored to them. These demanding goals can be achieved if organisational and individual learning needs are worked on closely interlinked in one process.

Some organisational challenges require both learning by the actors involved and a change in the processes, routines and structures existing in the organisation. When these two sides are worked on in an interlinked process, transformis speaks of learning architectures. A learning architecture enables synchronous further development on both levels and is developed according to requirements.

The need for a learning architecture can arise from two directions. It can grow out of an organisational challenge for which the existing level of qualification of the actors involved is not sufficient. It can equally arise from a people development measure that needs to be anchored organisationally in order to secure its lasting effectiveness in the organisation.

In the planning phase of organisational and people development measures, a tendency can often be observed. Either the organisation is at the centre, and therefore a corresponding organisational development measure is to be carried out. Or qualification seems to be the answer to the company’s particular development need. The structured approach to planning a learning architecture helps to combine both perspectives.

A learning architecture thus achieves the effective interlinking of organisational development and people development. The presentation is based on Margit Oswald and Rudolf Wimmer. On the organisational development side is the implementation architecture at the organisational level. This is where the organisational challenges are worked on, supported by what has been learned individually.

On the people development side is the qualification architecture at the individual level. Here, individual learning is oriented towards the organisational challenges.

A learning architecture can be developed from two starting points: from organisational development or from people development.

If a learning architecture starts from the level of organisational development, the specific need for development and change at the organisational level is identified first and the necessary implementation architecture is derived. Then the question must be answered whether the level of qualification of the actors involved is sufficient to master the specific organisational challenge, or whether development at the individual level becomes necessary.

If a need for individual development becomes apparent, a corresponding qualification architecture must be designed at the level of people development. It is aimed at opening up learning opportunities and building the competences of the actors involved in a targeted way with regard to the specific organisational challenge.

In this case, the implementation architecture sets the pace for the qualification architecture. Each implementation phase at the organisational level is preceded by a qualification phase at the individual level, whose content is oriented towards the particular challenges of the upcoming implementation phase.

If, on the other hand, a learning architecture starts from the level of people development, the first step is to specify the qualification and development needs of the target group. Then it must be clarified which organisational conditions need to be created and which organisational developments and changes need to be initiated so that individual development through the qualification architecture can become effective in the organisation.

In the next step, the qualification architecture is designed and, based on it, the implementation architecture. In this case, the qualification architecture sets the pace for the implementation architecture. In sync with each qualification phase, the organisational conditions are created so that what has been learned can be applied and become effective on the organisational development side in parallel with the qualification phase.

Regardless of the starting point, an interlinking structure between organisational development and people development is required. It must ensure that individual learning becomes effective on the organisational side and supports the mastery of the organisational challenge in a lasting way.

Two essential questions must be answered. The first is: What do the actors involved need to know, want and be able to do in order to successfully support work on the organisational challenges? The second is: What precautions must be taken and what conditions must be created so that the individual learning of the actors involved can become effective in the organisation in a lasting way?

How the interlinking works can be shown using a learning architecture whose starting point is an organisational challenge. Based on this challenge, a process architecture for working on it is developed first, and the first implementation step is specified. From this first step, the qualification needs of the actors involved are derived on the people development side. The first qualification phase is designed from this.

After the first qualification phase has been carried out, the actors involved are able to master the first implementation phase. In the second qualification unit, the individual experiences from the first implementation phase are reflected on first. In addition, the identified learning content needed for the second implementation phase is taught. This is followed by the second implementation phase, and the sequence continues in this way.

The detailed content of the individual implementation phases can only be specified once the previous implementation phase has been completed. The content of the preceding qualification phases is in each case derived from the following implementation phase. The phases are therefore oriented towards each other. They must be developed to be tailor-made and flexibly adaptable.

A learning architecture is characterised by very specific learning settings that exist only during the period of learning and then dissolve again. This often happens in a combination of target groups and in a time sequence of different formats. These include the teaching of learning content, learning on the job, project work and individual learning.

The learning architecture must itself remain capable of learning. It should be open to necessary organisational changes, allow changes to the measures at the individual level and keep the structure and processes of the entire learning architecture adaptable. This requires continuous reflection routines.

These reflection rounds are about exchanging and processing experiences and current information from the implementation architecture and the qualification architecture. The insights are taken into account in maintaining the design of the learning architecture. In this way, the effective linking of organisational development and people development is continuously ensured.

This approach enables the organisation to master necessary organisational and individual changes. Beyond that, it enables the organisation to reflect on the established patterns of change and to make the change of change an issue in the organisation.

This establishes and further develops the organisational competence for self-renewal. This is a competitive advantage not to be underestimated, especially if one assumes that further crises and fundamental changes will have to be mastered in future too.