Developing Personal and Organisational Capability

1. Developing Personal and Organisational Capability ATEMQ Conference Carolyn Barker AM, FAIM Chief Executive OfficerAustralian Institute of Management – Qld & NT 25 May 2006

2. Some Context • Workforce demographics are changing and will have an irreversible impact on the individual’s positioning in an organisation • Individuals now talk about “Personal Career Planning” openly • Work/life integration is better recognised and respected • Individuals have a duty of care to each other and the organisation they chose to work with

3. Some More Context • Organisational politics is especially prevalent in large organisations, both public and private sector…and as a concept has not mellowed • The learning organisation is the appropriate framework for ensuring personal capability development contributes to organisational capability

4. Personal Career Management • The primary responsibility of all individuals in organisations • A new skill for most people, one for which they are not adequately prepared • Includes a “cookbook approach” to formal learning, informal learning, personal transparency and a reinforcing positive outlook

5. The Power of Engagement High Negative Positive Low

6. Another Way of Describing It High Negative Positive Low

7. Old to New – Personal Mastery Manage time Manage energy Avoid stress Seek stress Life is a marathon Life is a series of sprints Downtime is wasted time Downtime is productive time Rewards fuel performance Purpose fuels performance Self-discipline rules Rituals rule The power of positive The power of full engagement thinking

8. The Learning Organisation • A place where people continually expand their capacity to create results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free and where people are continually learning how to learn. Peter Senge, Fifth Discipline Field Book

9. The Five Disciplines • Personal mastery – learning to expand personal capacity which impacts on the organisational environment…allowing all members to develop themselves towards common goals. • Mental models – reflecting upon, clarifying and improving our internal pictures of the world and how they shape our decisions and actions.

10. The Five Disciplines • Shared vision – building a sense of commitment in a group, developing shared images of the future and the principles and guiding practices for how to get there. • Team learning – transforming conversational and collective thinking skills so that people can reliably develop intelligence and collectively contribute more. • Systems thinking – a language for describing forces and interrelationships that shape the behavior of systems

11. A Bit on Organisational Politics • This is where people representing different interests, agendas and perspectives and compete, come into conflict or collaborate in order to… • Interpret and evaluate information different to the state of culture and objectives • Allocate or claim scarce resources and rewards

12. This Translates Into • Compliance instead of Commitment • A general lack of trust • Monitoring and surveillance instead of open dialogue • Plans not put into practice • Rules being enforced selectively and inconsistently • Focus on status and symbols rather than substance

13. In The End • Better leaders understand personal career planning equals personal mastery • Better leaders link personal development to organisational capability • Better leaders don’t allow themselves to be disempowered • Better leaders understand the power of full engagement