david lyle-carter wrote:
> Some years ago I read an interview with Peter Senge in which he openly
> spoke of the essences of the learning organization. I was struck at the
> time by the strong spiritual tone of his words and by the way they echoed
> taoist or zen philosophy.
>
> Essentially he pointed out that the essentials of the whole complicated
> business of developing a learning organization boiled down to the
> simplicity of developing those inherent human qualities latent in all of
> us, which allow us to experience a sense of compassion and beauty for the
> world around us.
>
> Could it be that one of the many reasons why so many OD practitioners
> experience difficulties and obstacles in making the learning organization
> really happen is that the focus of their interventions is not orientated
> enough towards developing these "soul" like qualities?
>
> If there is anyone interested in discussing this idea further, I'd be
> only too happy.
YES, YES, YES!
I have only recently read "The Fifth Discipline", but since doing a course
in personal mastery which focuses on these "soul like qualities". When I
read the book my first thought was that it would be misunderstood by many
people because it is almost impossible to understand what Senge is about
when he talks of personal mastery if you have not experienced this. I feel
that he is writing as a practitioner, rather than a theorist, of personal
mastery.
Strangely, it was only last night that I discussed The Fifth Discipline
with friends from my personal mastery course. We feel that Senge has
written about his vision of a learning organisation which does not yet
exist. Our conclusion is that it would be very difficult to change an
existing organisation to Senge's vision (but not impossible) although it
would be easier with a small startup.
To create Senge's vision requires that everyone within an organisation has
"personal mastery" and this is problematic for a number of reasons. Many
people are not able to confront their beliefs, realities, etc and are not
prepared for the pain and agony of the mastery process (mastery is
difficult to describe/define, but, very simply, it is being in a position
where you understand how you operate within your environment from a
psychological viewpoint and then be able to have choice about this).
During this process many people develop a personal vision (something very
few of us have), which often does not align with the work they are
curretly employed in. The result is often a resignation - something that
most organisations are not particularly enthralled about. During my
mastery course we were told of an organisation here in Australia which put
its employees through a mastery course thinking that it would benefit
them. Subsequent to the course more than 50 per cent of the employees
resigned as they realised that their personal visions did not align with
that of the company. But, the advantage for the employees was that they
then had choice over the direction of their lives.
Another advantage of personal mastery is that people are truly able to
understand their strengths and weaknesses and then tend toward positions
for which they are truly suitable - no more square pegs in round holes -
but at the same time work on explicitly understood weaknesses which are
preventing them from reaching their goals/visions.
Ultimately, Senge is advocating a situation where employees are able to
work towards their own personal visions within the context of the
organisation. This would be a very empowering situation for both the
employees and the company.
My gut feeling is that any company that tries to create a LO in the Senge
mold is going to suffer a lot of heartache and a high staff turnover
during the transition but the end result will be an extemely exciting
place to work and an almost unstoppable organisation.
But, how to go about transforming an existing organisation to Senge's
vision? I'm not an expert in this field (I don't work in this area, have
not studied it and am more interested in Systems Thinking. But I do have
an interest in LO.), but I think that the way to go would be to have a
person skilled in both personal mastery and systems thinking working
within a smallish team. The ideas and concepts would be introduced slowly
and participation would have to be voluntary but with management's
blessing. Over a period of time a small section of the whole organisation
would start to act in the manner of Senge's vision and become comfortable
with all five disciplines. Once this is achieved, some of these people
(those who are interested) could be moved to other teams to start the
whole process again.
Hope this helps the discussion,
Bruce Campbell
Macquarie University,
Sydney
AUSTRALIA
--Bruce Campbell Bruce.Campbell@mq.edu.au
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>