The following was posted on the GEO (Grantmakers for Effective Organizations) blog earlier this month. LearnPhilanthropy’s Jessica Bearman was the guest blogger.
A Growing Appetite for Learning about Learning
Each had been tasked — or in a few cases tasked herself — with the formidable job of infusing learning more systematically into the foundation,developing a “learning agenda,” or changing the foundation’s culture so that it valued learning as a priority.
“Learning agenda” sounds good,and so does “learning organization,” but what does it mean to create and sustain one of these mythical beasts? I’ve observed before as part of the team working on LearnPhilanthropy that learning is often catch-as-catch-can in philanthropy.
In this case,many of these organizations had already committed — both rhetorically and practically,by giving this assignment — to making learning more front and center. They were experimenting with ways to build more learning opportunities into the work week. Some of the activities shared created space for serendipitous learning (such as a regular,optional Friday “Strategy Social”). Others emphasized utility to the individual (an online system for case review and receiving feedback from across the organization). And some worked to change culture and expectation from the top (such as a regular requirement to bring program area work in front of senior management for a rigorous and learning-oriented review). And yet,the folks at my table were encountering resistance to taking time for learning and reflection,both articulated (this is nice,but I have work to do) and more subtle.
No one felt that her foundation had arrived at the best way to make learning a high priority. They were hungry for resources and community,sharing ideas at a rapid-fire pace and scribbling notes as fast as they could write. No surprise,they were especially interested in their colleagues’ concrete and specific learning activities and strategies.
The idea that foundations are unique (you’ve seen one foundation,you’ve seen one foundation) is ubiquitous,but there’s a ton of transferable knowledge from within and outside philanthropy about how build learning into the culture of an organization.
* LearnPhilanthropy is a field-wide effort to connect grantmakers,trustees,and donors to knowledge and resources relevant to their work. It is led by a planning committee whose members represent both learning providers (including GEO) and foundations. Get involved at http://www.learnphilanthropy.net/.
