The founding of the society-for-organizational-learning in 1997 marked a significant institutional transition in the learning organization movement. The MIT Center for Organizational Learning, established in 1991 with major corporate sponsors, had operated as a university-based research center. The decision to establish SoL as an independent nonprofit organization reflected both the success and the limitations of the university-housed model: the MIT Center had generated valuable research and built a practitioner community, but university institutional structures and timelines were a poor fit for the kind of long-term organizational partnerships and global practitioner network that the learning organization work required.
The transition was not without difficulty. Some corporate sponsors did not follow the move from MIT to the new organization, and the independence from MIT's credentialing and distribution infrastructure required SoL to build its own institutional presence. peter-senge became founding chair, providing continuity of leadership and public profile. The founding coincided with the Harvard Business Review's recognition of fifth-discipline-1990 as one of the seminal management books of the previous 75 years — a juxtaposition of institutional building and public recognition that gave SoL considerable momentum.
SoL's founding structure reflected the network model that distinguished it from conventional research institutes or consulting firms. Member organizations contributed both financially and intellectually, participating in joint research projects and practitioner exchanges rather than simply receiving consulting services. This co-creation model was itself an expression of learning-organization principles — building an institution that practiced what Senge preached about shared-vision, dialogue-practice, and collective learning. The organizational design was an embodiment of the theory, which gave the network unusual coherence even as it spanned dozens of member organizations across multiple sectors and continents.