Knowledge Management

Intent Is No Guarantee of Learning

Ironically, at the time of the scandal Shell was consciously leveraging the concept of The Learning Organization. Faced with dramatic changes and unpredictability in the world oil markets in the 1980s, Shell’s planners had concluded that they no longer saw their task as producing a documented view of the future business environment 5 or 10 years ahead (de Geus, 1988). Instead, they reconceptualized their basic task as fostering learning rather than devising plans and engaging managers to ferret out the implications of possible scenarios. By institutionalizing the learning process, they conditioned the managers—or so they thought—to be mentally prepared for the uncertainties in the business environment. This ...