Transforming the Class into a Learning Organization

In this article we describe our experience in transforming our classes into learning organizations. Our mechanism was a pedagogical innovation in which we gathered weekly student reflections on the content of the session as well as the performance of the professor. We differentiate in the article between using the innovation as a traditional feedback tool and as a process conducted within a learning organization context. In the latter, the straightforward methodology required a vision for a different type of class, significant shifts in the mental models of students and professors, utilization of personal mastery, a systemic interconnectedness among the various aspects of the class as an organization, and a different understanding of the role of vulnerability in the learning process. The innovation surfaced the dynamics of the often undiscussible learning processes and rendered them part of management learning. Examples of critical incidents from our classes as well as student assessments of the process and its outcomes are discussed.