Why continual learning struggles to scale in organisations

"In most organisations the effort spent on ensuring conformance is is a vast multiple of the energy devoted to enlarging the capacity for human impact."

Michele Zanini

Systems ('how the work works here') in control based organisations aren't tuned towards continual learning and collective growth.

The conditions required aren't in place because those people in a position to shift the existing system towards something new feel they have too much to lose individually or collectively to make the changes needed.

This is the reason why enablers of continual learning struggle to take hold and return potential benefits. These enabling characteristics could include:

Deliberately getting all parts of the organisation to work together to increase new, value creating solutions

Higher quality (= more empathetic) interactions throughout (= 'up, down and across') the organisation

Deliberately choosing to learn from every encounter and constantly reflecting - to evolve from experiences and mistakes

Managers rewarded to act as facilitators, and so enabling more autonomy and contributions 

Cross functional teams and projects as the default approach; (deliberate structural flexibility)

Information freely shared with everyone

A constant drive for new insights

Encouraging self-starting, self-actualising team members.

These characteristics are outcomes of deliberately designed systems ('how we want the work to work here and why'), with deliberate choices and trade offs made with these goals in mind. 

The alternative is the status quo; (which is less scary).