Learning in Innovative Organizations

I have spent many years of my life in the area of Talent Management (or as it was known many years back as e-learning). The use of learning as a strategic weapon in organizations has always fascinated me. In particular, smaller innovative organizations that survive and succeed learn a lot more quickly and painlessly.

http://www.slideshare.net/sanjoysanyal/learning-in-innovative-organizations/

These slides based on a few chapters of "Making Innovation Work" by Tony Davila, Marc Epstein, Robert Shelton build a framework to understand Innovation. A key point it makes is that it links Knowledge Management (which has for many years dominated our thoughts on Learning) to the Innovation Framework. Knowledge Management is central to Incremental Innovation – operational items that organizations have to do everyday.

For radical innovation – on the other hand – learning by experimentation is key. There is really no substitute for trying and failing quickly. This reinforces the need for leaders and managers need to build an open collaborative culture to facilitate learning.