ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ideas about adaptation and learning based on Ashby’s ‘Design for a Brain’ before considering the specific work of Peter Senge the ‘guru’ of the learning organisation. Organisational learning is often associated with issues of data mining and knowledge management, frequently evidenced in retention of documented records, both physical and electronic, in an organisation. Lessons can be drawn from the work of evolutionists such as Darwin, which help us to understand that in a persistently evolving environment those species which survive are those which best adapt to their environment over time. A ‘learning organisation’ is defined simply by Senge as one where: people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and extensive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.
