Table 2: Idealism and Reality
The Ideal The Reality in the Field
Discipline 1: Personal Mastery—individual growth
and learning • Operational staff members feel undervalued by the organization; there
are few individual incentives for learning.
• National staff members and local actors are important sources of local
knowledge and vital for learning but are often excluded from learning
efforts.
• Southern knowledge is incorporated ad hoc at the tactical, rather than
strategic, level.
Discipline 2: Mental Models—explicit articulation
of tacit knowledge (ingrained assumptions) about the
organization and how it works in the wider world
• Tacit knowledge is all-important at the field level, with field staff
showing a bias toward informal learning and social networking.
• Explicit knowledge is seldom in the right form or in the right place at the
right time—it is always in catch-up mode.
Discipline 3: Shared Vision and consensus inspiring
and motivating staff members
• The aid sector lacks clarity and consensus about objectives,
responsibilities, relationships, and outcomes at all levels. This
carries through to the reference points and frameworks necessary
for understanding and assessing performance, and can diminish staff
motivation for learning.
Discipline 4: Team-Based Mastery—learning
through improved communication, and openness to
creative thinking through reflective conversation and
dialogue
• There is inadequate support for management and leadership in the field.
High staff turnover and inadequate procedures result in constantly
changing teams.
• Continual demands from head office for information "from the field"
create tensions that make learning difficult in many organizations.
Discipline 5: Systems Thinking—focusing on
interrelationships between parts of an organization
• The learning cycle of reflection before, during, and after activities is
poorly developed and unsupported at the field level, which creates
problems for systems-based approaches.
• Most aid agencies make no attempt to learn from recipient populations—
a fundamental omission.
Source: Ramalingam, B. 2008. Organizational Learning for Aid, and Learning Aid Organizations. Available: www.capacity.org/en/journal/
feature/organisational_learning_for_aid_and_learning_aid_organisations
Further Reading
ADB. 2008. Auditing the Lessons Architecture. Manila. Available: www.adb.org/documents/studies/auditinglessons-
architecture/IN371-07.asp
―――. 2009. Learning for Change in ADB. Manila. ADB. Available: www.adb.org/documents/books/learningfor-
change/default.asp
For further information
Contact Olivier Serrat, Head of the Knowledge Management Center, Regional and Sustainable Development Department,
Asian Development Bank (oserrat@adb.org).