ROLE OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT IN

ACCELERATING CHANGE
Preeti Bhatnagar
Yogesh Shastri

1.0

Introduction:
For organizations in business, its war out there. The corporate business scenario is
riddled with cut throat competition, price wars, ruthless shutdowns, hostile takeovers,
unwilling mergers and so on. The pace of change in external environment is blistering,
so much so, that before a new organizational management theory to counter the current
crisis is articulated, the nature of crisis itself changes, rendering all the theories obsolete.
Stability and predictability in world socio-economic order is a subject of history.
Like a living organism, any organization operates within a constantly changing
environment. New business realities in form of unexpected technologies, emerging
markets and radical innovations that rewrite the rules of the competition continually
present fresh challenges. To survive and stay ahead of rivals, an organization must
adapt to those realities quickly and that requires the organization to drive change
effectively.
Driving change within an organization and accelerating it to the tune of change in
external environment is such an important leadership initiative that new paradigms for
change management continue to emerge almost at a breakneck pace. The trend is likely
to persist as long as failure rate for change initiatives two out of every three, reports

Harvard Business School professors Michael Beer and Nitin Noharia

[1]

in Breaking the

Code of Change continues unabated.

2.0

Accelerating Change in an Organization:

With organizations survival at stake, there are no options left but to create and manage
a culture that will help organization in combating the uncertainties of the future. A culture
that drives the change from within, proactively and aggressively to outperform the
competition is the need of the day. Developing and sustaining such a culture in an
organization is necessary for survival.
The three basic aspects of an organization culture are people, process and system and
structures (see figure 1) and while it is relatively easier to deal with processes and
systems and structures, managing change is fundamentally a people issue. Its about
motivating and influencing behavior, about breaking old habits and attitudes and about
creating an environment that is conducive to embracing the new. Simply limiting change
initiatives to issue management i.e. managing cost, time and quality wont work they
are but the tip of iceberg (see figure 2), the attitude and behavior of the people and their
acceptance is what matters the most.
Bringing about change is easier said than done, because by our nature, human beings
resist the unknown and unfamiliar. We are comfortable with status quo, no matter what
problems lies underneath. The once successful patterns wont be able to address the
new and emergent challenges. It is required to reveal the deeper problems often hidden
by successes. Effective change agents know when to let go of the old way of conducting
business and forge ahead with new.

3.0

Coping with Change Unlearning and Relearning:

The exponential changes in the business scenario are continually challenging our
preconceived notions and beliefs. In order to be competitive in this landscape, we have
to let go these notions and beliefs. Sometimes, that means letting go of something that
has served us well for a long time. Management researchers and psychologists often
refer to this letting go as unlearning.
The organizations develop systems and structures to manage the inherent complexity
and more often than not, they tend to stick to the patterns that they have learnt over a
period of time. Of course, these systems and structures help us manage and contain the

energy but at the same time, they also constrain or disperse energy. They are also the
primary cause of an organizations inabilities to adapt to changes in its context. In mild or
severe forms, these patterns can become ingrained as comfort zones, addictions, hiding
place of denial and self protection. The large enterprises major problem is not to learn,
but to unlearn the recipes that once made them big. The organizational knowledge
structures are stuck in the once successful pattern, and they are doomed to be obsolete
one day. Old recipes always run the risk of turning sour with environmental changes. The
challenge here is to unlearn unlearn the systems and practices and technologies that
do not serve well.
The future is not in learning. It is in how fast we are at unlearning. The sooner we get rid
of our old baggage, the better we are. We need to unlearn what our target market is,
because it keeps changing. We need to unlearn the way we advertise and market,
because the market keeps getting smarter. We need to unlearn the way we approach
our brand, because thats no longer in our control. We need to unlearn the ways we treat
our employees, because the employees expectations too are changing. We need to
unlearn technologies, methodologies and designs we use. And it goes on. Progress
towards our goals may sometimes require an about turn. Goals may not change, but the
path to success is in a constant state of flux.
If an organization is truly desirous of creating a competitive edge, a change in course
may be necessary from time to time. It requires the organization to essentially unlearn
what it knows about being a success. Success, experience, sacrosanct beliefsall
serve to condition the organization. They harden its protective shell, making it
impervious to change. This hardening of the shell or the conditioning is inevitable, and at
times even appropriate. It helps them to function more effectively in the environment
they live in, but they cannot just hope to see better results by repeating the same old
patterns. Just as we cannot plant new crops without first uprooting the old roots and
giving new seeds a chance, organizations and individuals need to unlearn before they
can learn anew.
The argument for organizational unlearning is to have a better fit with the environment in
order to thrive and survive. It takes a sound intellect, a fair degree of self confidence
and courage to abandon something that is known and believed in, and replace it with
something new. It is a process that must be carefully managed. One cannot afford to

unlearn the precious experiences necessary for organizational life. There is a difference
between unlearning and forgetting while the former will precipitate a process of
relearning in the organization, the result of organization forgetting can be disastrous.
Often, what we already know gets in way of what we want to learn. When we unlearn,
we generate anew rather than reformulate the same old stuff. Creativity and innovation
bubble up during the process of unlearning. Unlearning is not about right or wrong. It is
about being open to exploring something that lies outside the known domain. The
process of unlearning is about liberation or freedom from conditioning or from the known.
If we wish to blossom, we should remember that a seed will only germinate and grow
into a tree, if it ceases to be a seed.

4.0

Organizational Learning and Development:

Organizational unlearning and relearning is not simply the most fashionable or current
management trend, it can provide work environments that are open to creative thoughts,
and embrace the concept that solutions to the ongoing work-related problems are
available inside each and every one of us. All we must do is tap into our collective
knowledge base. It gives us the ability to think critically and creatively, the ability to
communicate ideas and concepts and the ability to cooperate with peers in the process
of inquiry and action.
An organization which provides the necessary systems and structures for organization
wide learning is referred to as a learning organization. A learning organization is one
that seeks to create its own future; that assumes learning as an ongoing and creative
process for its members; and the one that develops, adapts, and transforms itself in
response to the changing environment.
However, there is more to it, than simply creating the systems and structures. Many
researchers have established that learning by doing is one of the most effective
methods of development. The more contextual learning is to a job, the more an
individual is motivated to learn. If organizations can make critical learning available at
the moment of need, they create an inherent teachable moment an ideal time to
leverage learning without upsetting the job at hand. While formal learning is very much
necessary for long term competency development, this type of embedded learning will
support skill development through collaboration and query interventions. And its not only

about hands on learning only, learning at the level of emotion will also become
important. As Dr. Debashis Chatterjee emphasizes:
Learning is the new form of productivity .Those old wise habits will have to be revisited.
We have to learn by heart

5.0

Creating the climate for change

The future is already here, Says Jay Conger, - its just the matter of recognizing it

[3]

.He

further adds The art of leadership is the art of abandonment. Effective change agents
know when to let go, what to let go and how to let go of old way of doing business and
forge ahead with new. And, this can only happen if the organization is continually
evolving a culture of learning and development, because it is learning which precipitates
change. As Dr. P.R.K.Raju[2] points it out, there are five building blocks (see figure 3) for
creating a climate for change:

Awareness: Organizations must be aware that learning is necessary before they

can develop into a Learning Organization. This may seem to be a strange
statement but this learning must take place at all levels; not just the Management
level. Once the company has accepted the need for change, it is then
responsible for creating the appropriate environment for this change to occur in.

Environment: Centralized, hierarchical structures do not create a good

environment. Individuals do not have a comprehensive picture of the whole
organization and its goals. This causes political and parochial systems to be set
up which stifle the learning process. Therefore a more flexible, organic structure
must be formed. By organic, we mean a flatter structure which encourages
innovations. The flatter structure also promotes passing of information between
people thereby creating a more informed work force.
It is necessary for leadership to take on a new philosophy; to encourage
openness, reflectivity and accept error and uncertainty. People need to be able to
question decisions without the fear of reprimand. This questioning can often
highlight problems at an early stage and reduce time consuming errors. One way
of overcoming this fear is to introduce anonymity so that questions can be asked
or suggestions made but the source is not necessarily known.

Leadership: Leadership should encourage learning to help both the individual

and organization in learning. It is the leader's responsibility to help restructure the
individual views of team members. For example, they need to help the teams
understand that competition is a form of learning; not a hostile act.
Leadership must also provide commitment for long-term learning in the form of
resources. The amount of resources available determines the quantity and
quality of learning. This means that the organization must be prepared to support
this.

Empowerment: The locus of control shifts to the people who are actually closer
to the place of value addition. People become responsible for their actions; but
the leaders do not lose their involvement. They still need to encourage, enthuse
and co-ordinate the people. Equal participation must be allowed at all levels so
that members can learn from each other simultaneously. This is unlike
traditionally learning that involves a top-down structure (classroom-type example)
which is time consuming.

Learning: Companies can learn to achieve these aims in Learning Labs. These
are small-scale models of real-life settings where management teams learn how
to learn together through simulation games. They need to find out what failure is
like so that they can learn from their mistakes in the future. These leaders are
then responsible for setting up an open, flexible atmosphere in their
organizations to encourage their teams to follow their learning example.

In a fast paced continually shifting environment, resilience to change is often the most
important factor that distinguishes those who succeed from those who fail. This
resilience can be built into the DNA of an organization through continuous continual
learning and development of its people into leaders who seek change as an opportunity
to excel and thrive.

6.0

Towards a Learning Organization The SAIL experience

To successfully thrive on change, we need a conscious approach towards unlearning
and relearning. Not only do we need to reflect on our weaknesses, we also need to
foresee the pitfalls ahead. Based on our studies and research of the available literature
in the field of organization learning, we propose a Normative self corrective model (see
figure 4) for accelerating change through learning and development.

Figure 4: Normative self corrective model for accelerating change

A) PREREQUISITE

Develop leadership skills: To start with we need to develop leaders. Learning

organizations need different leadership skills. As Peter Senge [4] says:

In a learning organization, leaders are designers, stewards and teachers.

Leaders are responsible for building organizations where people continually expand
their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental
models that is, they are responsible for learning. learning organizations will
remain a good idea until people take a stand for building such organizations.
Taking this stand is the first leadership act.
It has been long known that leadership is a skill that can be learnt and practiced. At
SAIL, we have developed specialized training programs, and outsourced the task to

the experts in this field to develop our leaders as learners, teachers, stewards and
designers.

Forge a shared vision and mission: Building a shared vision is crucial early on
as it fosters a long-term orientation and an imperative for learning. Mass
communication exercises by top leadership are a proven tool for this exercise. SAIL,
in past has used tools like CROP (Creating a Responsive Organization through
People) and ICS (Internal Customer Satisfaction) very successfully. The credo
statement of SAIL emphasizes the value of learning as it explicitly states that:
We create and nurture a culture that supports flexibility, learning and is proactive to
change.

B) NURTURING

Enhance

communication:

As

Confucius

had

once

remarked:

For learning to be more than local affair, knowledge must be spread quickly and
effectively throughout the organization. The importance of communication in
creating a climate for change cannot be overemphasized. At SAIL, communication
is one of the most critical area, where we have to make a lot of improvements. The
following points emerged as biggest blocks in effective communication:
a. Multi-tier hierarchy
b. Propensity to shoot the messenger
c. Workplace environment
d. Lack of use of technology.

The following imperatives were suggested to enhance communication level at

SAIL:
a. Effective system of feedback
b. Prohibit jargon
c. Increase usage of modern systems of communication

d. Add the necessary hardware and software

e. Strengthen the communication network using tools like forum discussion
(blogging) and e-learning.

The leadership has taken several steps to reduce the communication bottlenecks,
which include

Use of plant wide intranet to communicate with people

Introduction of 360 feedback system
Facilitating use of mobiles inside the plant premises
Introduction of Ispat Sandesh - a newsletter in local language

Emphasize training: Even the trainers need to be trained.

It was felt that our HR personnel need to keep themselves abreast of
developments in external environment to maintain their effectiveness.
Training is identified as the most important tool for skill building. To create a culture
of organizational learning, we need to develop special leadership skills and strong
communication skills amongst SAIL leaders. Competence mapping started at
Merchant Mill of Durgapur Steel Plant, Durgapur and in some of the areas of Bhilai
Steel Plant is a welcome step towards bridging the skill gap. Tools like
psychometric profiling also need be used to identify the training and learning needs
of an individual to help people learn better.
We at SAIL, also need to enhance our formal training to the next level both in
quantitative and qualitative sense, as it is very significant in two respects: to
communicate why and how company is changing and to enable people at all levels
to generate a positive change for themselves in their own area and for the whole
company.

Individual learning:

The process of organizational learning begins with an

individual. Job enrichment with incentives is the most powerful driver for individual
learning. Multiskilling was implemented in many units of Bhilai Steel Plant
successfully only because there was an incentive associated with learning new
skills and trade.

Another important driver of individual learning is job rotation. It pushes the

individuals out of their comfort zones, and motivates them to unlearn their old
knowledge and learn anew. However, job rotation must be an upward spiral
process, in which learning and growth go hand in hand.
It is a matter of experience that people learn best by doing. This reinforces the
theory of embedded learning as one of the most effective means of individual
learning. Linking this process with knowledge management, will definitely result in
a powerful step towards organizational learning.
SAIL also sponsors its managers and leaders for higher education in relevant
areas. An innovative drive e-abhiyan was also started by Human Resource
Development Center of Bhilai Steel Plant so as to encourage development of basic
PC skills. It is worth mentioning here, that although the program was conducted
after normal office hours, a lot many people enrolled for the program and are
enjoying their newfound skills with computers.

C) BUILDING KEY DRIVERS

Team learning: Team learning is one giant step towards becoming a learning
organization. As our study points out, teams in our organizations are highly
effective. The leaders and managers of SAIL have utilized this huge source of
energy to unleash their unlimited potential. Leaders need to get sensitive to the
dynamics of team learning (see figure 5) and facilitate team learning by
encouraging a process of dialogue and creative discussion amongst team
members to help realize the achievement needs of a team. They must also keep a
close eye on the process of team learning so that it doesnt slip into a defensive
behavior loop.
Some of the suggestions to leverage the team synergy in SAIL in favour of learning
are:

a. Direct team learning interventions

b. Fair and tough team appraisal systems
c. Honest team rewarding

Knowledge Management: At Bhilai Steel Plant, we have identified three main

bottle necks in knowledge management:
a. Important knowledge is not formally captured and stored
b. Poor contribution to knowledge repository of organization
c. Usefulness of the knowledge pieces in knowledge repository

We need to address all these three issues. We need to make investment in easy
and effective usage of knowledge management systems, because if it is not done,
the quality of data gets worse, the trust in data reduces, which in turn leads to
decline in usage of knowledge management systems (see figure 6). We must strive
to develop knowledge management as a movement make it a functional system
rather than ornamental accessory. And, all the while we need to keep it in mind that
knowledge management is not about data management its all about people. It
should be people based, people oriented and people driven. It should stimulate the
unlearning and relearning from within, because knowledge is the key - to transform
SAIL into a learning organization.
In addition to this, it is also suggested that participation in knowledge management
drive must be made compulsory by accepting it as a key performance area. We
also suggest that a system of incentives (and disincentives as well) will also
promote a greater participation in knowledge management systems.

D) PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES
People often learn in response to a need. When they dont see the need, they often
ignore or reject it and fail to assimilate it in meaningful ways. We need to generate
the creative tension that stimulates the need to unlearn and relearn by providing
opportunities to the people and by moulding them to perceive challenges as

opportunities. SAIL has embarked upon an ambitious growth plan to enhance and
sustain its position as the leader in Indian steel buisness. Corporate plan 2012 (or
shall we say Corporate Plan 2010) is viewed as a great opportunity, to learn,
unlearn and relearn. The magnitude of task is monumental and we need to come
out with some very good creative solutions to avoid time and cost overruns. Project
management is the area of focus and since, we have not handled projects of this
magnitude in recent past, it is necessary that we learn it fast learn it while doing
it. We also need to document the whole process and turn this experience into
valuable knowledge.
There are other avenues which provide SAIL and its people, the opportunities to
unlearn and relearn and gain competitive advantage in the process.
a.

Process Reengineering: Business or operation process reengineering is a

process of unlearning and relearning. The ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
initiative at Bhilai Steel Plant is one such process, which will redefine the ways
in which information is captured, stored and transmitted in the organization.
ERP solutions constitute of best practices in business processes and it is
generally accepted that there should be a minimum of customization during the
implementation of ERP so that an organization can let go of its old practices
and adopt new and better practices.

b.

Market & product development: Rural India with per capita steel
consumption of only 2 kg is big market waiting to get tapped. The rural sector,
especially in prosperous states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and
Western UP, has built up strong institutional bases. We are on path to build up
a strong distribution network, including retailers exclusively for rural regions.
Currently the main use of steel in rural areas is GC sheets for roofing and GP
sheets for household and agricultural equipment storage. The idea is to unlearn
unlearn thinking about rural markets in its stereotyped form and take
cognizance of the change in demands in prosperous pockets, to begin with.

Yet another avenue where we have to unlearn is marketing steel as a

commodity. At SAIL, we have good processes; we have good technology,

people, management, marketing practices and a wonderful product mix. So

why not position that in the marketplace and create the correct perception in
the mind of the customer? SAILMA, SAILHARD, and SAIL TMT bars are some
of our popular brands, but we also need to go to the markets and communicate
this. It has been also suggested to train the chain of distributors and retailers
for channel management, so that they maintain the discipline of the channel geographically, territorially and price-wise, and also ensure transparency of
transactions.
If we meet the prerequisites, nurture our environment by consolidating our strengths and
remove our weaknesses, we can create a culture of organizational learning to build the
capacity to combat the uncertainties and accelerate the rate of change. However the
journey doesnt end here - we need to design and develop evaluation metrics for
determining our rate of progress towards our goal that of building a culture of learning
and

development.

One

such

diagnostic

tool

is

(http://www.conferenceboard.ca/humanresource/LPI/default.asp

LPI
),

dashboard

developed

by

Conference Board of Canada. It can be used to evaluate, benchmark and enhance the
process of organizational learning by determining the gaps between current reality and
our vision. We need to bridge those gaps using our sources of creativity, empower our
people and build the necessary systems and structures to enable paradigm shift.
It is important to remember that becoming a learning organization is a long process and
that small setbacks should be expected. It is the journey that is the most important thing
as it brings everyone together to work as one large team. As Peter Senge

[4]

says, this

will help us build an

organization where people continually expand their capacity to create the result they
truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective
aspiration is set free and where people are continually learning to see the whole
together.
In addition to gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage, this whole process of
organizational unlearning and learning transforms our workplace into a well run and
interesting place to work, a place which truly values its employees.

7.0

Conclusions:

As the new century unfolds, business is poised for significant changes in its content,
emphasis and boundaries. With competition becoming more intense, customers
expectations are increasing and business outcomes are decided by abilities of the
companies to outperform their rivals. The significant feature of our times is shaping up of
the knowledge driven society in which knowledge is the basic resource for growth.
Survival and growth in a knowledge driven business environment implies radical shift in
strategies strategies that would lead towards organizational excellence through
learning and development.
The future belongs to those organizations, who invest in the future of people, the future
of the organization through powerful learning opportunities continuous continual
learning opportunities for every member, every leader of the enterprise from the leader
on the shop floor to the CEO. Learning as a value must permeate the culture and move
into the lives of people and throughout the organization, until there is no question as if,
only how, when and where.

Annexure A: Figures and Tables:

Figure 1: Components of organizational culture

Figure 2: The change iceberg

Climate
for
change

Figure 3: Building blocks for creating a climate for change

Figure 4: Normative self corrective model for accelerating

change

Figure 5: Dynamics of team learning

Figure 6: Poorly designed knowledge management systems

Figure 7: Knowledge is the key to transformation

Annexure B: Bibliography
1. Beer Michael, Nohria Nitin: Breaking the code of change, (2000, Harvard
Business School Press)
2. Dr. P.R.K. Raju, L.K.Jena, Priyadarshini Jyothsna: Learning to Learn, Unlearn
and Relearn (January-March 2006, Indian Journal of Training and Development)
3. Jay Conger: Winning Em Over: A new model for managing in the age of
persuasion
4. Peter M. Senge: The fifth discipline (Century Business publications)
5. Argyris C. And Schon D.A.: Organizational Learning: Theory, method and
practice (Addison Wesley)
6. Ahmed K. Pervez, Wang Catherine L: A review of concept of Organizational
Learning, (University of Wolverhampton.)
7. Barney J. : Firms Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage, (Journal of
Management, Vol. 17)
8. Chatterjee Debashis: Success Sutras (Times of India, Nov 22, 2006)
9. Christmas, Ian: World Steel A Common Future: (Internation Steel Congress,
Beizing)
10. Fiol, M. & Lyles, M. (1985) Organisational learning (Academy of Management
Review 10(4) pp. 803 -813)
11. Garwin D.A. Building a learning Organization, (Harvard Business Review 73(4))
12. Gnyawali D.R. and Grant J.H. Enhancing Corporate Venture Performance
through Organizational Learning , (International Journal of Organizational
Analysis)
13. Littlejohn Michael: Embedded Learning (Training + Development, February 2006)
14. Mazumdar S Mitra, Ghoshal T: Stratagies for Sustainable turnaround of steel
Industry (IE(I) Journal MM)
15. Moya K. Mason: New Directions: The Learning Organization (Navran Associates
Newsletter 1993)
16. Nonaka, I.

& Takeuchi, K. (1995) The knowledge-creating company: how

Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation (Oxford: Oxford

University Press)..

Annexure C: About the Authors

Preeti Bhatnagar
Date Of Birth :

January 14th, 1968

Organization

Bhilai Steel Plant, SAIL, India

Qualification :

B.E. (Mechanical), Sun Certified Java Programmer

Designation :

Senior Manager

Achievements :

Published Papers :

Hobbies :

Recipient of Jawaharlal Nehru Award for

outstanding contribution.
Facilitator of several quality circle projects and
Shop improvement groups.
Replacement of Drive side Trunnion Bearing of
Converter B in Bhilai Steel Plant (Annual
Technical Journal, BSP, Bhilai 2001-02)
Sustainable growth through employee
involvement (INSSAN, 2004-05)
Innovation through Learning (Technovations,
2005-06)

Reading books, Java programming, PC hardware and

software troubleshooting, Watching movies

Annexure C: About the Authors

Yogesh Shastri
Date Of Birth :

January 14th, 1968

Organization

Bhilai Steel Plant, SAIL, India

Qualification :

B.E. (Mechanical), Sun Certified Java Programmer

Designation :

Senior Manager

Achievements :

Published Papers :

Hobbies :

Recipient of Jawaharlal Nehru Award for

outstanding contribution.
Facilitator of several quality circle projects and
Shop improvement groups.
Replacement of Drive side Trunnion Bearing of
Converter B in Bhilai Steel Plant (Annual
Technical Journal, BSP, Bhilai 2001-02)
Sustainable growth through employee
involvement (INSSAN, 2004-05)
Innovation through Learning (Technovations,
2005-06)

Reading books, Java programming,

PC hardware and software troubleshooting
Watching movies