Anatomy of a learning organization: turning knowledge into capital at Andersen Consulting

Much has been written about knowledge management and ‘learning organizations’. But what type of organization structure best supports becoming a learning organization? In this article, we describe a conceptual model of the learning process that applies to individuals, to teams, to divisions and to an organization as a whole. Related to the learning processes, we describe three different types of knowledge—experiential, formalized, and emerging—and explain how each type requires a different style of management. A key contribution of our research is insight into the need to manage emerging knowledge; today, most organizations fail to recognize how to capture and manage this type of knowledge. We describe two organizational elements that are new relative to traditional organizations. We conclude by relating the various learning processes and the associated types of knowledge into an ‘anatomy of a learning organization’. Throughout this article we use indented italicized paragraphs to describe various aspects of Andersen Consulting's change journey1 to become more of a learning organization.