Systems Thinking and Design: Making Learning Organizations a Reality in the U.S. Army

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This monograph examines whether the addition of design to U.S. Army doctrine, along with other changes, can clarify the concept of the learning organization and make it more achievable by operational units at the battalion and brigade levels. While there have been prior studies of the U.S. Army as a learning organization, they have focused on the whole Army as a monolithic entity, rather than investigating organizational learning at the operational level. Systems thinking, a common component of design and of learning organizations, is explored in depth to determine methods best suited for military application within the current operations process. Our findings determine that current doctrine encourages and is broadly consistent with the requirements of the learning organization. However, the concept of the learning organization is not explained in any detail. The necessary components of a learning organization are distributed across multiple field manuals, and no integrating explanation of how commander and staff processes contribute to organizational learning is provided. If institutionalizing organizational learning at the operational level is a desirable goal for the U.S. Army, then minor changes in training and operations doctrine could help to realize this potential. We recommend several targeted improvements to current doctrine to better articulate the concept and explain the essential linkages with commander and staff processes. Finally, as theoretical research cannot improve Army practices on its own, a pilot study is recommended to test the recommendations on a sample of operational units.