What is the Learning NGO Questionnaire?
From KM4DevWiki
Back to Main Page on KM Benchmarking Day 1, June 18
Workshop 1: KM Benchmarking
The session was organised in an Open Space format. This is a participatory way of running a workshop/meeting. The principles are the following:
- Whoever comes is the right people
- Whenever it starts is the right time
- Whenever it’s over it’s over
- Whatever happens is the only thing that did happen
The law of the two feet: Everybody is free to move around, e.g go from one session to the next, or leave the workshop. There are different roles: ants, bumblebees, butterflies. Every participant can suggest topics that he/she wants to discuss. A time and place is set where interested participants can meet.
The issue of the workshop was KM benchmarking, and in particular the Learning NGO questionnaire developed by Bruce Britton (Intrac, 1998). Further reading: www.framework.org.uk
The questionnaire is built on the eight functions model of a learning organisation described in Bruce Britton’s paper. The model suggests that there are eight key dimensions in which an organisation needs to perform well in order to learn effectively. The questionnaire is a tool to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an organisation in terms of the eight key dimensions. It includes 40 statements/questions and one has to score the statements on a scale from 0 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). The questionnaire is available as a paper version, excel spreadsheet, or electronic survey on surveymonkey. The result of the answers is visualised with a spider diagramme.
It was highlighted that the tool is a measurement of individual subjective views at a certain moment in time, but as often ‘perception leads behaviour’, it does not really matter that the data is `soft’. As the questionnaire is completed by a sample of participants, it allows to aggregate data and draw some general conclusions. It is a good way to visualize perceptions, make perceptions transparent and discuss the outcome of the assessment with the team. The dialogue itself is (part of) the learning. The survey can be done in a small group or up to 200 people.The results can be used for comparisons within the same organisation over time; within different groups of the organisation (disaggregation of data, e.g. gender, seniority, units, etc.; and between different organisations The participants shared their experience with the tool. The questionnaire might need some adaptation of formulation and/or content depending on the context of the organisation.
What happens with the assessment results?
- External communication/PR
- Evaluation
- Triggering internal discussions, create internal dynamic
- Educative effect of presenting the questionnaire: Raise awareness about what is a learning organisation/create a common understanding
- Track record for an NGO: How is the organisation developing? By repeating the assessment after 2 or 3 years.
Some other tools for Benchmarking:
- OKA Organisational Knowledge Assessment (WB)
- MAKE assessment (ADB)
- River Diagramme (Geoff Purcell)
- SIEMENS tool
