Workshop report: Organisational Change and the role of learning

In order to influence practice and bring about change, it is important to understand how change happens in organisations, and to look at the role of what we call ‘learning’ in bringing it about.

Changing the behaviour of humanitarian actors and changing the organisations in which they work is not the same thing. While there is potential for each to have a positive or negative influence on the other, arguably sustainable positive change in individual and group behaviours is impossible without supporting change at the organisational level.

However such change is far from easy. Emerging accounts of organisational change tell us that it is a highly complex process, involving multiple actors and factors, that it is continuous and organic, and that it is unpredictable, with unexpected results. Organisations may change for many different kinds of reasons – only one of which might be the motive to learn or improve their performance. The space for the influence of learning needs to be identified, better understood and actively used in strategies for organisational change.

The workshop will use structured narrative techniques for participants to share experiences of organisational change being brought about or blocked. Participants will explore in groups the role that learning has played in such changes.

In workshop plenary, participants will then develop shared ideas on how ALNAP, and the other Initiatives, can bring influence to bear to encourage positive learning-based change in organisations in the light of this understanding.