Is Organisational Learning a Myth?

Common sense suggests that organisations should learn from their successesand failures. Surely a project that turns out to be a great organisational successshould provide useful information that increases the chances of future successes.Similarly it might be imagined that a venture that turns out to be nothing short ofdisastrous should become an example of what not to do, with the organisationtaking the lessons from that failure and ensuring that such failure isn’t repeatedin the future.If only this were true! In fact, as this briefing reveals, organisations frequently failto see the error of their ways. Success creates straitjackets around organisations,wrongly shaping future actions and leading to failure. As for failures, organisationalpolitics and the blame culture in many organisations prevent people fromacknowledging failures.[...]