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• Personal mastery
• Team learning
• Systems thinking
Mental models (refer to chapter 4) are the coherent set of understandings or
models that allow individuals to make sense of their world and to make decisions
accordingly. A mental model can consist of experiential learning, things “ learned the
hard way, ” perceptions, values, beliefs — all assembled in a personalized manner by
each individual. Shared vision refers to rendering parts of the individual mental
models visible so that they can be shared with others in the organization, understood
by others, and perhaps even appropriated by others. The process of sharing can and
often does lead to a modifi cation of existing models so that the individuals involved
can come closer together with respect to a shared mental model of their organization.
Personal mastery refers to a set of values and attitudes such that individuals are com-
mitted to lifelong learning — which in turn enables the organization to engage in
lifelong learning. The implicit assumption behind this core competency is that the
individuals ’ mental models are not so rigid as to prevent any new knowledge, that
is, learning, to be incorporated or added (which may trigger a change or updating of
the original mental model). Team learning is the organizational values and attitudes
that actively foster individual learning such as investment in training or encourage-
ment to participate in communities of practice (CoPs; often excellent vehicles of
learning as discussed in chapter 5). An organization that supports individual learning
is much more likely to be capable of organizational learning. Finally, “ systems think-
ing, ” the “ fi fth discipline, ” refers to the perception or defi nition of an organization
as a gestalt, an integral entity that cannot be reduced to a series of components. The
organization must be seen, studied, and treated as a whole where all the parts are
seamlessly connected to one another. Systems thinking is also an excellent way of
viewing KM: as an intact system made up of processes, people, culture, technology,
and so forth.

Frameworks to Assess Organizational Learning and Organizational Memory
There are a variety of frameworks that can be used to assess organizational learning,
in much the same way as maturity models can be used to assess the state of KM within
an organization (discussed in chapter 7). These organizational learning frameworks
serve to evaluate the organizational readiness or baseline state of a given organization
with respect to organizational learning processes, organizational memory containers,
and enablers of these, such as technology and culture.