Building and Leading Resilient Teams: Module 6
Module 6: Enhance the organization’s ability to change and compete by supporting organizational learning (part 1).
Organizations that cannot learn are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Gaining a competitive advantage is hard. Maintaining a competitive advantage is even harder. To survive and compete over time, organizations must be willing and able to learn and change. In fact, without learning, there can be no change. This is true for individuals, teams, and organizations of all types. And just like individuals and teams, when an organization bounces back from adversity, learning is how it adapts and grows. Resilient organizations are learning organizations. In learning organizations, leaders at all levels build and lead resilient teams.
Why build and lead resilient teams?
In any organization, getting the work done can be hard. Resilient teams thrive in challenging environments because they can overcome adversity, and then adapt and grow together. Leaders build resilient teams by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. Building resilient teams makes team learning possible. Team learning is the foundation of organizational learning and change.
Learning Objectives for Modules 6 and 7: Enhance the organization’s ability to change and compete by supporting organizational learning (parts 1 and 2).
Assignment 1. Learn the following key terms and ideas. Knowing these key terms and ideas is essential to understanding the concepts that support each leader task in this module. (0.5 hours)
Key Terms and Ideas
- Organizational learning is the process of continuously improving and innovating to gain and maintain competitive advantage.
- Continuous improvement is making a product, service, or process better (knowledge exploitation).
- Innovation is creating a new product, service, or process (knowledge exploration).
- Competitive advantage is anything that puts an organization in a favorable position as compared to competitors.
- Organizational change is the transition of an organization from its current state to some desired future state.
- Vision describes what an organization wants to be in the future.
- Mission is what individuals, teams, and companies do day-to-day to accomplish goals and objectives.
- Strategy is a roadmap of plans and policies for accomplishing the long-term goals and objectives of an organization.
Assignment 2. Reflect on your unique leader/follower experience with each of the leader tasks and concepts below. Consider ALL the reflection questions in detail. The articles are provided to prompt critical thinking about the topics. (5.5 hours)
Leader Tasks and Concepts
1. Analyze organizational learning capacity.
Organizational learning is the process of continuously improving and innovating to gain and maintain competitive advantage. Learning organizations must be good at both continuous improvement and innovation. Organizational learning starts at the team level.
- How would you rate your organization’s capacity to learn?
Continuous improvement is making a product, service, or process better (knowledge exploitation). Innovation is creating a new product, service, or process (knowledge exploration).
- Have you or your team made a product, service, or process better recently?
- Have you or your team created a new product, service, or process recently?
Competitive advantage is anything that puts an organization in a favorable position as compared to competitors. The surest way for an organization to gain and maintain a competitive advantage is to learn and change faster than the competition.
- Why is competitive advantage important to a for-profit organization?
- Why is competitive advantage important to a non-profit organization?
- Is competitive advantage important to a government organization?
- Is competitive advantage more important to some government organizations than others? Explain.
- Does your organization have a competitive advantage? If so, what is it and how was it developed?
Organizational change is the transition of an organization from its current state to some desired future state. For an organization to change, it must be willing and able to learn. Change is not possible without learning.
- How would you rate your organization’s capacity to change?
- Does your organization have positions dedicated to change management? If so, are they effective at what they do?
Reading:
Organizational Change is Never Easy – Some Tips to Help
5 Ways to Create More Positive Workplace Changes
Taking Process Improvement Further
Business Process Improvement: Identifying What Needs to be Fixed
Leadership and the Psychology of Culture Change
The Cultural Life Cycle of Organizations
Mission is what individuals, teams, and companies do day-to-day to accomplish goals and objectives. Vision describes what an organization wants to be in the future. A bold and aspirational vision will drive learning and change in an organization.
- Has your organization published a mission and/or vision statement on its website?
- Does your organization’s vision statement describe a future that it is trying to achieve?
Promoting a shared vision helps to align the efforts of people and teams across the organization. Shared vision helps keep people and teams in the organization headed in the same direction.
- Do you and your team have a good understanding of your organization’s vision?
- How does the organization’s vision affect what you and your team do day-to-day to accomplish goals and objectives?
Promoting a shared vision includes explaining the purpose or “why” behind the vision. Organizations are better at learning and change when people believe in the organization’s purpose and “buy into” the vision. The daily actions of leaders, especially senior leaders, must be consistent with the organization’s vision.
- What is the purpose that drives your organization toward its vision?
- Do you believe in your organization’s purpose and vision?
- Are you able to promote the organization’s vision? If not, why not?
- Are the actions of senior leaders in your organization consistent with the organization’s vision?
- Do senior leaders believe in the organization’s purpose and vision?
Organizations realize their visions by building a great culture and executing on sound strategy. Culture is the shared assumptions, values, and beliefs that govern how people behave across the organization.
- How would describe the culture of your organization? What do the people in your organization collectively value and believe in?
- Does the culture in your organization help or hinder execution of strategy? Explain.
- Does the culture in your organization help or hinder learning and change? Explain.
Culture sets the conditions for strategy to be effective. Strategy is a roadmap of plans and policies for accomplishing the long-term goals and objectives of an organization.
- Are you and your team confident that your organization’s strategy for reaching long-term goals and objectives is working? If not, why not?
- How does learning support an organization’s ability to execute strategy?
The plans and policies developed to achieve long-term goals and objectives (strategy) are more likely to succeed when people in the organization collectively value learning and believe that change is possible (culture).
- Do the people in your organization value learning? If not, why not?
- Do you and your team value learning? If so, how is that value expressed at work?
- Does your organization have policies that support a culture of learning? What are some examples of those policies?
- Do people believe that change is possible in your organization? If not, why not?
- Do you and your team believe that change is possible in your organization? If not, why not?
Reading:
Vision and Mission
Shared Vision: A Development Tool for Organizational Learning
4 Steps to Creating a Shared Vision that Will Energize Your Team
New CEO Study Describes “Culture” as Fundamental to Success
The Links Between Organizational Culture and Effectiveness
Establishing an Organizational Culture Through the Net
Assignment 3: Group Discussion. For students participating in an instructor-led course, the group discussion of leader tasks and supporting concepts is a key element of the learning experience. Group discussion of the factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) relevant to each leader task ensures that students are well-prepared for the RBLP, RBLP-C, and RBLP-T leader certification exams. Students participating in an instructor-led course may also want to make use of the Exam Prep Study Tool described below. (3.0 hours)
RBLP® Leadership Certifications
Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® (RBLP) Certification.
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® (RBLP) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose.
RBLP is our core leader certification for supervisors and people seeking a supervisory position. Applicants for RBLP leader certification must have at least two years of work and/or college experience.
During the 1.5-hour oral RBLP exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, and Provide Purpose competency domains (Modules 1-3 only).
Resilience-Building Leadership Professional Coach® (RBLP-C) Certification.
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® Coach (RBLP-C) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. They are also qualified to facilitate team learning.
RBLP-C certified leaders can coach others on these leadership competencies.
RBLP-C is our leader certification for managers and people seeking a management position.
During the 2.5-hour oral RBLP-C exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, Provide Purpose, and Facilitate Team Learning competency domains (Modules 1-5 only).
Resilience-Building Leadership Professional Trainer (RBLP-T) Certification.
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® Trainer (RBLP-T) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. They are also qualified to facilitate team learning and support organizational learning.
RBLP-T certified leaders can coach others on these leadership competencies and provide training that prepares people to sit for the RBLP, RBLP-C, and RBLP-T certification exams.
RBLP-T is our leader certification for senior managers and people seeking a senior management position.
During the 3.5-hour oral RBLP-T exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, Provide Purpose, Facilitate Team Learning, and Support Organizational Learning competency domains (Modules 1-7).
© 2019-2024 Resilience-Building Leader Program Inc. | All Rights Reserved
Resilience-Building Leader Program, Inc. owns the copyright to this curriculum and licenses the curriculum to Authorized Education Partners (AEP) and Authorized Training Partners (ATP) on a royalty-free, no-fee basis for their use in providing education and training programs to students and customers. The license permits the AEP or ATP to re-publish and distribute the curriculum materials to students, customers, faculty, and staff, so long as the copyright notices included in the materials are kept intact and not removed or altered. An AEP or ATP may modify and alter the materials within the spirit of the content of the materials. According to this license, an AEP or ATP may not sell the materials. By using, publishing, and/or distributing the curriculum, you agree to this license.
Resilience-Building Leader Program, Inc. also licenses the curriculum to current Resilience-Building Leadership Professional Trainer (RBLP-T) certified leaders on a royalty-free, no-fee basis for their use in providing training at no cost for up to five family, friends, or coworkers per calendar year. This license strictly prohibits the re-publishing, modification, or alteration of the curriculum materials. According to this license, the RBLP-T certified leader may not sell the materials. By using and/or distributing the curriculum, you agree to this license.
“RBLP”, “Resilience-Building Leadership Professional”, “Learn More. Lead Better.”, and the RBLP shield logo are registered trademarks of Resilience-Building Leader Program, Inc.