About delta 5 

Supporting organizations to learn faster with respect to strategic points within the organization: that is what delta 5 is about. It is relevant because successful organizations owe their success to learning the necessary lessons faster and better. delta 5 Strengthens earlier professionalization attempts and improvement efforts using TQM, Kaizen, 6Sigma and Lean thinking. delta 5 Also strengthens your organization’s ambition with regard to social innovation, smarter working, innovation and knowledge management.

Years of curiosity, a PhD study, consultancy experience in leading multinationals and co-creation with FrieslandCampina have led to a compact system which measures, analyzes and improves organizational learning.  Professional exchange has taken place with Microsoft with regard to the new working methods. Connections have been established with the Life Hacking Academy with respect to smarter working. Nils Roemen, one of the founders of the BR-Group, is one of the frontrunners in the Netherlands with regard to social innovation using concepts like Daretoask (Durftevragen).

In addition to systems like TGM and Six Sigma, delta 5 also looks at what happens ‘below the surface.’ The unwritten rules within an organization in particular have a huge impact on strategic targets like quality, innovation, safety and the ability to improve on these kinds of elements. 

Three characteristics of a learning organization

1. A learning organization transcends day-to-day short-term pressure.

2. A learning organization has ‘meta-patterns’: behavioral patterns which (can) improve existing patterns and contexts.

3. A learning organization exchanges the false security of the known for intelligence.

An important aspect of our approach is that we acknowledge the dominant behavioral patterns and the extent to which they are effective and allow improvement efforts. There is always a behavioral culture with effects and there is always a context of systems, structures and processes which either promotes or inhibits the achievement of organizational goals.

Besides learning processes which focus on products or services to generate money, there should also be learning processes which involve the organization itself. Normally these exist side by side: an invention needs to be produced and therefore calls for specific requirements in the production process. This production process needs to be coordinated and provided with information. Many incremental improvements are necessary in a new design. What is the organization’s capacity for incorporating such learning?

Characteristics of delta 5

delta 5 Is a system which allows the organization to maintain and yet transcend its short-term thinking, to develop behavioral patterns that increase the pace of learning and to exchange the false security of the known for intelligence.

5 characteristics

First, delta 5 is based on scientific research without focusing on a specific theory with regard to learning or behavior. Each of the scientific theories and best practices developed provides important and useful insights for managers. That’s why we developed a framework which organizes the existing scientific contributions. The framework provides deep insight into the factors that inhibit and stimulate organizational learning. The framework consists of five perspectives – which explains the name delta (the Greek word for change) 5. 

five perspectives

© Dr. Johan Boudewijns

The framework, developed by Dr. Johan Boudewijns, logically organizes the many scientific contributions on the role of organizational learning and strengthens the diagnosis.  

Second, we integrate both the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ side of the organization in the diagnosis and improvement process. Efforts to accomplish cultural change are in vain when ‘structure’ and ‘culture’ are treated separately: separation irrevocably leads to contradictory signals and unintentional effects.

both written and unwritten rules contribute to results

delta 5 Involves both the written and the unwritten rules of the organization. Together they are responsible for the results with regard to organizational learning. To understand the background of the current performance and organizational learning we need to look ‘below the surface’ as well.

Third, we look less closely at the formally prescribed behavior, the ‘as it should be’, and more closely at the actual behavioral patterns. The reason is that the actual behavioral patterns also lead to the actual performance. The identified patterns are analyzed using the framework of the 5 perspectives to get a deep understanding of what effect these patterns have on organizational learning. This analysis makes it possible to choose an effective improvement program.

Fourth, delta 5 entails both a diagnosis and a concrete approach to change. You would not want a doctor to prescribe you something for your health problems without establishing a sound diagnosis. Nor would you be happy if there were no treatment to follow on the diagnosis.

Fifth, best practices and scientific knowledge are combined. Science is very valuable in practice, especially because science is nothing but the careful drawing of conclusions not from one person’s experience but from large numbers of people.

unwritten rules-triangle

The triangle analysis was developed by Dr. Peter Scott-Morgan and allows us to understand the meaning of the patterns below the surface. The logic behind the unwritten rules and effects is essential to be able to explain the current level of organizational learning. 

 
Organizations create their own future. Organizations with a high learning and development capacity achieve the future they aim for.
delta 5 provides control over learning processes.
To embed organizational learning in an organization, a balance must be found between short-term and long-term success, between action and reflection, between talking and listening, between inside and outside, between theory and practice.
A culture which allows employees to make mistakes is not the only requirement for learning. When a mistake cannot be traced back to its causes, learning is not possible in such an environment.
Learning processes which focus on production to generate money should exist alongside learning processes which concern the organization itself.
delta 5 strengthens earlier professionalization attempts and improvement efforts using TQM, Kaizen, 6Sigma and Lean thinking.
The obvious learning processes are also known by competitors.
delta 5 translates organizational goals into the organization’s ability to actually realize these goals while making the process more effective, more cost efficient, more intelligent, more innovative and more sustainable.
What have you learned today? And your organization?
delta 5 makes learning, developing and innovation an intrinsic element of the organizational culture.
delta 5 is applicable for all sectors ranging from industry, service providers and government institutions.
If a mistake may not be traced back to a person, no one is learning.
Helping people strengthen their problem-solving capacity.
A learning organization is a group of people with a shared goal and which is getting better and better at realizing its goals.
In a learning organization, learning is embedded both in the organization’s culture and structure.
delta 5 strengthens your ambition with regard to social innovation, smarter working, innovation and knowledge management.
Process optimization of the ability secures the future.