Developing a Learning Organization

1. Developing a Learning Organization A Learning Organization is based on principles of Total Quality Management and the work of people like Peter Senge, Sue Miller Hurst, David Bohm, and others.

2. The Five Disciplines of a Learning Organization (P. Senge) 1. Building a Shared Vision--the practice of unearthing shared “pictures of the future” that foster genuine commitment. 2. Personal Mastery--the skill of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision. 3. Mental Models--the ability to unearth our internal pictures of the world, to scrutinize them, and to make them open to the influence of others.

3. The Five Disciplines (continued) 4. Team Learning--the capacity to think together which is gained by mastering the practice of dialogue and discussion. 5. Systems Thinking--the discipline that integrates the others, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice. (Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Double-day.)

4. Building Blocks of a Learning Organization • Storytelling • Leaders must articulate the group’s vision of the future and the purpose of the organization. This is done often and in many venues with all constituents. • Dialogue • This is the ability of the organization’s members to truly communicate in small and large groups. New insights and learning takes place through “Dialogue”.

5. Dialogue • The object of discussion is usually “to win your point” • In Dialogue no one is trying to win. Everyone plays with one another. • Two types: generative and strategic, respectively, Unstructured v. Problem to solve. • Begin by “checking in”by stating what you are thinking, feeling, or wondering at the moment. • Guidelines: sit in a circle, speak to the center, listen with respect, practice the disciplines (next slide), leaderless, create a safe container.

6. The Disciplines of Dialogue • Active Listening: non judgmental, listen deeply. • Suspending Certainty: suspend your certainly for the moment and open the door for learning. • Slow Down the Inquiry: wait before responding to think, consider and reflect upon what you heard. • Hold the Space for Difference: allow for differences of opinions. • Speak from Awareness: speak when you are compelled to from inside. Otherwise, listen.

7. The Seven Learning Disabilities 1. I am my position. This leads to myopic and non-systemic views of the organization. 2. The enemy is out there. Flows from above, especially when combined with small group identification. We protect ourselves and have a narrow sense of self-identification. Others “screw up” and we have to protect ourselves.

8. The Seven Learning Disabilities (continued) 3. The illusion of taking charge. Too often “proactive orientation” means “fighting the enemies” to get what we want. True “proactive orientation” comes from seeing how our own actions contribute to problems. 4. Fixation on events. We see events as having one or two causes rather than seeing most problems as coming from slow, gradual processes.

9. The Seven Learning Disabilities (continued) 5. The parable of the Boiled Frog. We react to sudden threats, but we are poor at reacting to gradual threats. 6. The delusion of learning from experience. We learn from experience, but critical decisions (changes) have systemwide consequences that stretch over years.

10. The Seven Learning Disabilities (continued) 7. The myth of the management team. Most teams operate below the level of the lowest IQ in the group. The result is “skilled incompetence”--teams of people who are proficient at keeping themselves from learning, which should be accomplished through “Dialogue”. (Senge, p. 17-26)

11. TQM Tidbits • Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the organization.--W. Edwards Deming • Trust cannot be mandated. Yet it is the cheapest, most sensible, and for us, most radical means for reform of the system that can be recommended. --Ted Sizer • We can and should shape our future; because if we don’t somebody else will. --Joel Barker

12. TQM Tidbits (continued) • The best way to predict the future is to create it. --Peter Drucker • Even if you are on the right track, if you just sit there you will get run over. --Will Rogers • Four things are needed to change any organization: trustworthiness, trust, empowerment, and alignment of goals. --Stephen Covey • Anytime we think the problem is “out there”, that is the problem. --Stephen Covey

13. TQM Tidbits (continued) • 4 important questions to keep us on track toward “quality”: • Who are my (our) customers? • What are their needs? • How am I (we) doing? • What can I (we) do better? --Jim Leonard • What gets measured gets done. --Tom Peters • You won’t get anywhere if you don’t have a goal. --Ben Franklin

14. TQM Tidbits (continued) • The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of the people in his or her organization is going to blow the competition away. --Walter Wristen (former Citibank CEO) • The world we have created is a product of our thinking, it cannot be changed without changing our thinking. --Albert Einstein • Transformation begins with the individual. --W. Edwards Deming

15. Final Thoughts • Everyone doing his or her best isn’t the answer. The first step in transformation is to learn how to change. --W. Edwards Deming • Organizations seriously committed to quality management are uniquely prepared to study the learning disciplines and to be life long learners on a never ending developmental path as individuals and organizations. --Peter Senge <the end>