The Learning Organization

M. Renna VanEpps

2016SP2-BME-213704-01X

LA#5 Final Project

July 31, 2016

        “The Learning Organization is a place where people help each other to learn and grow — as well as accomplish the goals of that particular organization!” (The Learning Organization: An Overview).  Organizations strive to be their best.  It has become increasingly more prevalent for an organization to focus on the skills of their employees.  A greater focus on continued learning for employees has developed over the years.  Organizations have begun to grasp the importance of this focus and of becoming a learning organization as a whole.  According to the text, there are some characteristics that help to describe a learning organization.  They are as follows:

• “Organization and all employees are open to learning in many different areas.
• Workers are seen as learners.  It is OK to learn as part of your job and to share that learning and help others to learn.
• All employees have placed a value on learning that is intrinsic to organization.
• “Scouting is a permanent feature – gathering information outside the organization from many sources.
• High-performing organizations expect core workforce to help anticipate and prepare for the future.
• All core players in the organization are responsible for being strategic and future oriented.
• Role of management is to manage so that learning occurs!!  Managers should sort out and deal with differences in information to see that useful ideas from various sources are incorporated into problem solving and creative projects.  

The workforce now and in the future will need to be good learners and have well-developed skills as learners.” (The Learning Organization: An Overview)  I have chosen to evaluate my previous employer on these characteristics and to develop a plan for change to address some areas that are in need of change.  I will use what I have learned in this class to develop a plan to implement learning into the lawn care company.  I will develop a plan for management to follow that will allow for employees to better strive for personal mastery, and to benefit the company.  

        Weed Man Lawn Care is a locally owned franchise.  The business does fertilization and weed control for its customers.  The owner started his lawn care business utilizing the shed in his back yard about 14 years ago.  He operated the business by himself until he had just over 700 customers.  At that point, he realized that he had to hire some additional help.  Since that time, the business has grown to over 4000 customers.  He has a small company in a small town.  During peak season, he employees 40-50 people.  Three years ago, he hired members of his staff to become “managers” and he also hired an outside source to help him reach his potential and to help his company to maximize performance. I will refer to him as a “trainer”.  This could be a great asset to his company, but he has been unable to get his management team to agree that this is something that is useful.  Many of the team feel as if it is a complete waste of time and, therefore, disregard what the trainer has to say.  In fact, they very often mock him after their sessions and have been heard to say, “I’m only doing this because I have to.” or “I don’t see what benefit this has for us.  I am not going to do what he says anyways. I know what I’m doing.”  The owner is often absent from the office and from the day to day activities there.  His management team consists of four people who have never held management positions before.  Three of the four have also never had any sort of formal training/education.  Only one has a degree in business management, but this is her first “real job” out of college.  I am not saying that this cannot work because with proper leadership, I believe that it could.  There are several areas that I believe need to be addressed that would help his company to be more successful with less turn-over and a greater sense of job satisfaction for his employees.

        I would be remiss if I did not begin with the lack of availability of the owner.  When he first began his learning from the trainer, the trainer is said to have stated that the owner should be able to be away from the office and to trust his management team to take over in his absence.  The owner took this to a level that I am not sure the trainer intended.  He would be out of the office 90% of the time, but along with that, he was unavailable to be reached when needed.  If you were able to reach him, he would reply with, “You guys will have to figure out how to get through this amongst yourselves.  We are a family and that is how you have to deal with it.”  This created a need for someone who was at the office to make all the decisions.  The office manager decided that she would take over in that area.  However, she had no previous experience with management.  She rules the office with manipulation and retribution. She treats everybody else in the office the same as she would treat her children.  She is the boss and you do what she says; no questions allowed.  The owner never sees this because he is not present to see it.  When he does come into the office, she changes her presence to be one of martyr.  My first recommendation would be that the owner make himself available even if he is not in the office. However, I believe that he needs to spend more than a few hours per week in the office so that he could see for himself what the true dynamics of the office are.  I would also recommend that he actually listen to his employees when they come to him with a situation and work to get to the bottom of the situation and find a solution that works for everybody. His opinion that all issues should be dealt with outside of him, leaves employees feeling abandoned and undervalued. According to Jacquelyn Smith, a Forbes staff member, states that it is possible to for a company to be successful if the boss is not present but there are some guidelines to follow.  She says that communication with the boss is imperative.  Taking initiative is also important.  Employees need to take good notes when they do speak with the boss so that there is no question down the road as to what he was expecting.   Having first-hand experience with the owner of this company as well as his management team, I am able to see that there is more to it.  The owner has stepped so far away from his company that he seems to only be present when he has to put out a fire.  He seems to have given the office manager all of the power and he is happy to do so because he does not have to deal with anything himself.  The owner has to be in the office and be willing to sit down with any employee to discuss the issues they are experiencing.  He has to be able to deduce what the real issues are by discussing things with all involved parties.  He has shown that he only listens to the office manager and that she is the only one who is telling him the truth about situations.  However, when he gives a directive about how he wants things to be handled that are contradictory to what she thinks, she always waits for him to leave the office and then says that he does not know how things work there and it would be better accomplished her way.  I believe that his absence has helped to create this.  I believe that his presence in the office on a daily basis would create a greater respect for his opinions as well as an ability for him to actually see the culture that has been created there.  It would show his employees that he has not abandoned them and that he does care about them as well as his profits.