Organisational Learning research findings for NATO militaries continues: Guest seminar at the Portugal Joint Services Lessons Learned Workshop

John Tull (BOS) presented research at a further NATO impact event this week (8 October 2024, NATO Communication and Information Academy, Oeiras, Portugal). The event was another in a series of practitioner engagements in the later stages of a research project that has identified new ways to understand the challenges known to impede organisational learning within this alliance network.

There is a puzzle at the heart of these challenges.

Organisational learning and resource-based theories would seem to suggest that smaller, less powerful members of an alliance should readily adopt standardised processes and systems, as they stand to benefit significantly from the knowledge transfer ‘surplus’ and ‘interoperability’ efficiencies provided by the alliance. However, empirical evidence indicates that smaller NATO members often display variable and suboptimal adoption of alliance-wide standards and processes, presenting the conundrum.

This project investigates the organisational factors that facilitate or hinder effective learning and the role of formal methodologies, standards, and tools in this process. Understanding these dynamics offers valuable insights into organisational learning within hierarchical, multi-stakeholder institutions. Management research perspectives, particularly adopting a focus on the specific practices of individuals, units, and functions as they navigate networks of often-competing relations, are proving valuable in generating fresh perspectives of value for both practitioners and theory.

At the invitation of the head of the Portuguese Joint Services Lessons Learned branch, and with the Commander of the NATO Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre in attendance, John presented key findings from the study that examines the varying approaches in the Portuguese, Dutch, Estonian, and Ukrainian Armed Forces to organisational learning, through a management lens. He then outlined the reseach project’s draft recommendations to potentially address the eight key issues the research has identified and validated continuously by means of these impact events.

The presentation sparked fruitful and productive discussion among the 35 participating officers and led to requests for follow-on discussions in Portugal that will further consolidate and validate the research findings. On a broader front, related impact workshops in Slovakia, Germany and Estonia are scheduled for the next few months, completing the series.

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