How We Grow Together at LambdaWorks

A learning organization is an organization that continuously enhances its ability to adapt, change, and improve by encouraging learning at all levels. ~ Peter Senge

It's what we're aiming for at LambdaWorks. We want to make learning part of everything we do every day, from working together and sharing knowledge to trying new ways and iterating on our processes so we can get better. We want growth, curiosity, and innovation to be a part of how we work.

By emphasizing five core disciplines, we embed habit learning that drives growth, innovation, and mutual success in the company.

Personal Mastery

It’s about continuously developing individual skills, knowledge, and self-awareness to achieve both personal and organizational goals.

Each member of LambdaWorks has a Personal Development Plan (PDP) articulating learning goals, skill growth, and career growth. We make investments in the plans through funding training, mentoring, and directed learning time, which enables people to develop while facilitating team and organizational success.

This also helps a person continue learning outside of their current project or immediate role. For example, a backend project developer can use their PDP to study frontend frameworks, product design, or leadership skills. By enabling this broader learning, people expand their perspectives, bring new ideas back into projects, and stay prepared for future opportunities. Ultimately, the organization is served by workers who are not just experts at their immediate task but also adaptable, curious, and up for new challenges.

Mental Models

These are the assumptions, beliefs, and habits of thought that shape how we see the world and make decisions.

We promote challenging assumptions in retrospectives and project planning at LambdaWorks. An example is when we embrace a new framework where we argue hypothetical risks, advantages, and other ways of performing something to guide decisions from collective knowledge rather than automatic responses.

One of the risks of not testing mental models is that they create silos, where knowledge and practices remain locked inside an individual. By testing assumptions in a group, we bring out insights that can be shared across the whole organization, not just within a single part of it.

Team Learning

Learning and development as a team through open communication, collaboration, and shared experiences.

We share this every week at LambdaWorks in “tech discussions,” as we like to call them: what we've learned, new things we've realized, and how we're implementing them into projects. It ensures that we learn from one another, keep our understanding in sync, and improve overall as a group.

Apart from these interactions, we also have an open knowledge base where all the members of the team can add, edit, and share resources that are beneficial to the whole company. In this way, lessons learned are not limited to a project but become part of the shared memory at LambdaWorks. We also have separate channels for broadcasting innovative new technology, thrilling innovations, and innovative best practices in industries, making it easy for anyone to stay inspired and engaged with the latest developments. Together, all these practices make us learn faster, share knowledge better, and raise the level of the whole team.

Shared Vision

Creating a common goal that inspires and aligns everyone across the organization.

In creating a new product, our teams work together to establish the vision for the project collectively. This ensures everyone's input is heard and brings all teams together to work toward a common objective, and innovation and problem-solving become a team effort.

Systems Thinking

Viewing the organization as a whole, understanding how different parts are connected and how their interactions shape overall results.

We were experiencing product delivery delays. It was initially like an estimation problem, but going through the overall system brought out that vague requirements in the beginning were leading to rework later on. By making requirements gathering tighter and improving team alignment before the start of development, we eliminated delays and ensured more predictable delivery.

Benefits That We Notice from Being a Learning Organization

Continuous Improvement, Adaptability, and Competitive Advantage

In the rapidly evolving IT industry, where lifelong learning is essential, our strength lies in fostering continuous improvement and adaptability. We encourage staff members to make suggestions that streamline procedures and workflows and foster an innovative and experimental culture. This helps us maintain our agility in the rapidly changing technology scene, ensure operational effectiveness, and optimize processes.

At the same time, our emphasis on learning and development guarantees that people's investment and knowledge sharing are the foundation of our success. We provide better products, faster solutions, and deeper customer connections by empowering creative, talented employees.

Better Knowledge Retention and Sharing

As a learning organization, we strive to capture knowledge and promote its circulation across teams. This streamlining of processes enhances organizational efficiency as employees spend less time on redundant efforts, and the efforts of all employees are coordinated to work towards a common goal.

By building a culture of collaborative documentation and free circulation of knowledge, we retain organizational memory and promote cohesive teamwork that enhances the capacity of teams to work in a coordinated way.

Sense of Community and Improved Collaboration

When employees see that their voices are appreciated and recognized, they care more and show more passion towards the work and the organization as a whole. This inspires and motivates employees to build a strong and genuine sense of community. This feeling of belonging greatly fuels collaboration across divisions and cohesive cross-departmental teamwork.

Through the simplification and open communication of our objectives, we have decreased obstacles and enhanced team unity. Sincere and open communication guarantees that problems are settled quickly, offering a chance to take advantage of the organization's innovative and cooperative problem-solving skills.

Challenges We’ve Faced

One of the major challenges is finding a balance between the pressure of short-term delivery and the need to invest in long-term growth. When deadlines are looming, it’s easy to skip learning rituals or put personal development on hold, but we’ve learned that neglecting learning leads to misalignment, rework, and missed opportunities down the line.

Another challenge is breaking resistance and assumptions to change. Humans naturally tend to revert to old habits, and confronting current habits can feel uncomfortable. At LambdaWorks, we surmount this by offering safe spaces like retrospectives, open discussions, and mentoring, where ideas can be questioned constructively without fear of being blamed.

An additional problem is knowledge silos. Important ideas might remain restricted to particular teams or individuals if they are not purposefully addressed. For this reason, we have made a commitment to developing dedicated discussion channels, establishing shared knowledge bases, and conducting frequent team discussions. Learning is made visible and accessible to everyone, not just those who are actively involved, thanks to these resources.

Conclusion

Learning organizations aren’t easy to build. They require time, patience, and a willingness to step away from quick fixes in favor of deeper, systemic change. Being a small-to-medium company allows LambdaWorks to adapt quickly, take bold risks, and integrate learning into all our activities. Our supportive team environment ensures everyone’s voice is heard, making it easier to turn insights into action and enabling us to improve continuously as a team.

Reference

• Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art & practice of the learning organization.