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This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of learning organization concepts from the perspective of Professor Bob Garratt and presents an interesting evolution toward his work on learning boardroom members.

Through a conversation with Professor Garratt, the authors capture several topics pertaining to his evolution of learning organization concepts, those who have differing views and ultimately what led him to develope his theories on the impact of the most senior members of an organization on the learning constructs.

The learning organization debate has many foundations that today have led to differing perspectives. Professor Garratt provides his particular background and how he developed his opinions, which he admits have not always been embraced in practice.

The discussion with Bob Garratt reveals his understanding of the learning organization concept and how it developed from a lifetime of practical application. Ultimately, the reader will understand, in Professor Garratt’s own words, where he was confronted with challenges and why his concepts evolved to where they are today.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an interview with Bob Garratt, author of The Fish Rots from the Head. Bob has consulted internationally for over 25 years on five of the six continents. He is known for his discreet work on corporate governance; board review and development; director mentoring; top team development; and strategic thinking.

This briefing is prepared by an independent interviewer.

Bob Garratt discusses his reasons for revising of his bestselling book, and how the role of the board needs to function within an organization, in order to get the best from the business and have long‐term success.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that can have a broader social impact.

Bob comes from a background where organizational learning and development are underpinned by the rigor action learning and the blending of human behavior with the feedback mechanisms of cybernetics. Bob wrote the first book called The Learning Organization in 1986 and has experience working with large‐scale organizational changes in the engineering, financial services, defense electronics and non‐profit sectors as well as in government.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the learnings from prior interviews with thought leaders in learning organization conceptual development. Prior interviews with Karen Watkins, Victoria Marsick, Michael Marquardt, Bob Garratt and Peter Senge are included in the summary, which is an interim step as The Learning Organization continues to explore the learning organization history and evolution.

The paper summarizes prior interviews to uncover commonalities and differences in the development and evolution of the learning organization concepts as described by thought leaders.

Both commonalities and differences exist in definition, development of theory and resilience since original publication. Common threads in concept develop appear across the authors mainly in influences by Revans, Argyris and Schön. Differences also exist in how each author developed learning organization constructs.

The synthesis reveals that although the learning organization may have differing definitions, there are commonalities that tie some concepts together. Additional interviews will be continued in the exploration of the learning organization evolution.

This essay argues that many directors are never inducted and developed into their board directoral roles. By not understanding their legal roles and tasks as a director, as distinct from a manager, they can rarely extract themselves for long enough to become skilled at thinking strategically, assessing risks, and taking wise decisions for the future health of their company

The paper draws on many years experience of working with boards. It advocates the use of the Learning Board model, the Thinking Intentions Profile psychometric, reading newspapers and journals systematically and getting out more, as ways of creating the conditions in which strategic thinking can be developed effectively.

Three key conditions must be met before it is possible to achieve an effective board. First, agreement around the boardroom table that they will accept as essential board selection, induction, training and development, annual appraisal of the board and each director. Second, that the board chairman is fully committed to these, including his or her own 360 degree annual appraisal and is backed strongly by a truly independent company secretary or legal counsel. Third, that all directors have the same annual contract for services which spells out the time they need to devote to their crucial direction‐giving role.

This paper is of particular value to Boards in the UK, Europe and the USA and to senior executives.

Experience shows that there are no easy ways of transferring Western ideas of “management” into the factories of the Peoples' Republic of China, or vice versa. With the present rapid expansion of trade between China and the West this sets up some formidable problems for the managers who are likely to be involved in the new “joint ventures” and for the people who have to organise them from Head Office.

Adopting IT would usually imply implementing and applying some form of equipment for staff to use in order to achieve the objectives of the organization. Equipment would usually imply some form of computer hardware in possibly a local area network configuration, or perhaps a wide area network. In the past this may have been the cabling of dumb terminals located at the workplace to a central mainframe or minicomputer. In the future this may involve the networking of the new, exciting 486 processor with microcomputers in a more decentralized configuration. The 486 processor may well have quite a far‐reaching impact not only on what staff can do and how they do it, but also on the DP/MIS/IT departments, as well as on the organization's budget.

The central idea of action learning — that for any organism to survive its rate of learning must be equal to or greater than the rate of change in its environment — has stood the test of time, and is used as a reason for selecting and launching action learning processes by management. Little emphasis has been placed on the learning side of the equation; change has always been the predominant factor. The notion of learning, seen as the key commodity necessary to guarantee the survival of the organisation is pursued and developed with examples. The main implications for the organisation by concentrating on action learning are given.

Organisations face rapid change and a learning, flexible management has a better chance of survival.

Argues that few directors know what their role is. Having had no training or development, directors can revert back to managing, rather than direction‐giving. Discusses the new pressures which are forcing directors to rethink their roles. Directors must act as the business brain of the enterprise, rather than engage in head‐down managing. Argues that the learning board′s major role is the creation of a learning organization, and that learning cycles are necessary, which bring policy formulation, strategic thinking and operational review into a natural rhythm.