Five Disciplines for Building High Performing Learning Organizations

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Five Disciplines for Building High Performing
Learning Organizations

• Presented
• Campus Norrköping
• Linköping Universitet, Sweden
• September 24-25, 1998

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A High Performing Organization is

• a group of people who are continually
  enhancing their capacity to create the results
  they want. This statement has two parts to it
  One, you have to know what you want to create, so
  you are continually reflecting on your sense of
  purpose, vision. And secondly, you have to be
  continually developing the capability to move in
  that direction.
• Peter Senge, 1990

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The Laws of the Fifth Discipline

• Todays problems come from yesterdays
  solutions.
• The harder you push, the harder the system pushes
  back
• Behavior grows better before it grows worse.
• The cure can be worse than the disease.

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The Laws of the Fifth Discipline (continued)

• Faster is slower
• Cause and effect are not closely related in time
  and space.
• You can have your cake and eat it too--but not at
  once.
• Dividing the elephant in half does not produce
  two small elephants
• There is no blame. (Senge (1990) pp.. 57-67)

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Organization Learning Disabilities

• I am my position
• The enemy is out there
• The illusion of taking charge
• The fixation on events
• The parable of the boiled frog
• The delusion of learning from experience
• The myth of the management team (18-24)

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Antidote to Learning Disabilities

• Aspiration
• Individual Collective
• Understanding
• Complexity and Change
• Collaboration

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Systems Thinking

• Is a language for learning and acting.
• Helps us see how we create our reality
• Points to higher leverage solutions to problems.
• Helps us understand and describe complex issues.
• Integrates the other disciplines.

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Events, Patterns and StructureStructure is
harder to see
Events Trends and Patterns
Increase leverage and opportunity for learning
Like an iceberg the big important structure is
hidden
Structure
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Levels of Structure

• Business structures
• Organizational Structures
• Interpersonal Structures
• Individual Structures
• (Mental Models)

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Business Structures

• Market Positioning
• Customer Interface
• Product Strategy
• Distribution Strategy

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Organizational Structures

• Management structure/hierarchy
• Strategic planning process.........
• Reward system
• Information system
• Cultural norms
• Written rules

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Interpersonal Structures

• Relational skills
• Roles and role flexibility
• Ability to recognize capitalize on diversity
• Problem solving and decision making
• Unwritten rules

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Individual Structures(Mental Models)

• How I think
• How I view myself and my role
• My beliefs and assumptions

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Systems Thinking

• Is a discipline for seeing structures(the
  patterns and connections underlying seemingly
  diverse personal, organizational and societal
  issues.

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Disciplines of Highly Performing Learning
Organizations

• Systems thinking
• Personal mastery
• Mental models
• Shared vision
• Team learning

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Systems Thinking

• An appreciation of how our actions shape our
  reality.
• An appreciation that ones actions impinge all the
  members of the work unit.
• Focus on interrelationships and not things
• Think in circles, not in lines.
• Moving beyond blame.

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Systems Thinking (Cont.)

• Systems Thinking shows that is no outside--that
  you and the cause of the problems are part of a
  single system.
• The language of systems thinking is links and
  loops.

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Systems Thinking (Cont...)

• Seeing interrelationships rather than linear
  cause-effect chains.
• Seeing circles of causality.
• Seeing processes of change rather than snapshots.
• The practice of systems thinking starts with
  understanding the concept called feedback.

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Levels of Perspective

• Vision
• Mental Models
• Systemic Structures
• Patterns
• Events

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If we were 99.9 free of defects in our life

• Eighteen planes would crash every day.
• The Postal Service would lose 17,660 pieces of
  mail every day.
• More than 3,700 prescriptions would be filled
  incorrectly every day.
• Ten new born babies would be dropped during
  delivery everyday.
• Banks would deduct 24.8 million from the wrong
  accounts every hour

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Personal Mastery

• Based on personal vision.
• Facing current reality.
• Holding creative tension--the gap between reality
  and the vision we hold is creative tension.
• Commitment to the truth.
• Using subconscious, or, you dont really need to
  figure it all out.

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Stages of Personal Mastery

• Adopting a creative orientation toward life.
• Articulating a personal vision and seeing current
  reality.
• Choosing to commit to creating the results you
  want.
• Balancing work and home life.

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Personal Mastery

• Is the emotional intelligence-capacity to use our
  intelligence (smarts) to the fullest extent.
• Organizations learn only through individuals who
  learn.

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Personal Mastery Capacity

• Our capacity is limited by 5 Demons
• Fear of not being good enough you have untapped
  capacities within yourself
• Fear of losing control letting go makes new
  things happen
• its a cruel world out there--life is always a
  struggle there is generosity all around, all you
  have to do is ask

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Personal Mastery

• I am in this all alone, I cant count on anyone
  but myself there is help everywhere
• Fear of losses to great to bear, fear of our own
  mortality leaving something behind creates space
  for something new
• Source Personal communication Judy Brown, Ph.D.

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Mental Models

• Are the images, assumptions, and stories which we
  carry in our minds of ourselves, other people,
  institutions, and every aspect of the world.
• Are like a pane of glass framing and subtly
  distorting our vision.
• They determine what we see.

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Mental Models

• They are our cognitive maps of the world people
  hold in their long-term memory and short-term
  perceptions which people build up as part of
  their everyday reasoning processes.
• According to some cognitive theorists, changes in
  short-term every day mental models, accumulating
  over time, will gradually be reflected in
  changes in long-term deep-seated beliefs.

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Mental Models

• Are powerful in affecting what we do because they
  affect what we see.
• The tools needed to practice this discipline are
  Reflection and Inquiry.

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Skills for working practicing the discipline on
Mental Models

• Reflection--slowing down our thinking processes
  to become aware of how we form our mental models.
• Inquiry--holding conversations where we openly
  share views and develop knowledge about each
  others assumptions.

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Skills for working practicing the discipline on
Mental Models

• Single-loop learning
• People respond to changes in their organizational
  environment by detecting errors and correcting
  them to maintain the current desired status. No
  reflection or inquiry that leads to reframing the
  situation.

• Double-loop Learning
• Involves surfacing and challenging deep-rooted
  assumptions and norms of an organization that may
  lead to a a reformulation of the problem.

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Ladder of Inference

• A tool for examining your mental models

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I take
Actions (based on my beliefs)
I adopt
Beliefs (about the world)
I draw
Conclusions (based on assumptions)
I make
Assumptions (based on meaning)
I add
Meaning (cultural personal)
I select
Data (from what I observe)
Observable data/experiences
All that is knowable
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Climbing the Ladder
Id better consider bringing someone else in on
this project.
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ADVOCACY --Moves you up the ladder of inference
High
INQUIRY -- makes your thinking process
visible --Ask questions from genuine not
knowing -- Moves you down the ladder of inference
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Benefits of the Ladder

• Helps you check your assumptions
• Helps you become more aware of your own thinking
  and reasoning
• Prompts you to make your reasoning clear to
  others
• Helps you inquire into the thinking and reasoning
  of others

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When to Use the Ladder

• When we notice ourselves jumping to conclusions
• When you hear someone advocating a position
  without making their reasoning clear
• When you fear that group-think may be occurring
  in the teams conversation

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Left-hand Column Analysis

• What is it?
• A way of checking our assumptions
• A method of checking out what were thinking but
  not saying
• A method to remind us to use the ladder of
  inference if necessary
• A method of mutual inquiry

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Tools for working practicing understanding
mental models

• Left-hand Column Exercise
• On a sheet of paper folded in half
• Think of a conversation you had about a problem
  or issue that was hard to resolve
• In the right-hand column write down what was
  actually said.
• In the left-hand column write what you were
  thinking and feeling and not saying

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Example of Left-hand Column
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Left-hand Column Analysis

• MESSAGE Make your left-hand column explicit
• From example, try this
• What I hear you saying is that we should move
  ahead with the project. I want to share a
  concern that Ive been thinking but not saying.
  I am worried about the current staffing
• I want to share a conclusion I formed from our
  last conversation, and check how it fits with
  your thinking.

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How to use the Left-hand Column

• First, practice on paper
• Write the actual conversation on the right
• In the left-hand column, write what you were
  thinking but not saying
• Then use it as a tool for reflection-in-action
• Examine your thinking while you are in a
  conversation
• Look for opportunities to share your thinking
  with others, and inquire into others thinking

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BEWARE
5 warning Signs of ASSUMPTIONS
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The Competency Trap

• Too often when confronted with a problem we
  speed listen and assume this problem is the
  same as one we encountered before. This leads to
  a limited range of possible solutions!
• Try asking, What assumptions am I making about
  this situation that may limit my deeper
  understanding of the problem?

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Be aware of you own reasoning

• Ladder of Inference helps prevent jumping to
  conclusions by
• reviewing the logic that produces conclusions
• revealing gaps in reasoning

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Make Your Reasoning Clear to Others

• Ladder provides a tool to ask questions without
  embarrassment

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Seek to Understand Others Reasoning

• Ladder is a tool that permits mutual inquiry into
  each others thinking without being rude. For
  example, you can ask,
• Can you lead me through the steps which led you
  to that conclusion?
• Rather than rudely asking, Are you sure you know
  what youre talking about?

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Shared Vision

• Shared visions emerge from personal visions.
• Personal mastery is the bedrock for developing
  shared vision. Commitment to the truth and
  creative tension can generate levels of energy
  that go beyond individual abilities.

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Shared Vision

• Leaders intent on building shared visions must be
  willing to continually share their personal
  visions. They must also be prepared to ask,
  Will you follow me?
• Vision creates a sense of commonality that binds
  people together for a greater good.
• A shared vision must be co-created.

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Team Learning

• Team Learning is the process of aligning and
  developing the capacity of a team to create the
  results the members truly desire.
• Team learning is a team skill.

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Team Learning

• Tools of Team Learning are Dialogue and
  Conversation
• A flow of thoughts and meaning
• No results or decisions
• No stripes
• Open and honest talk
• Awareness of ones assumptions, discovery of the
  assumptions of others.

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Learning Organization

• The Learning Organization is an organization that
  has woven a continuos and enhanced capacity to
  learn, adapt and change its processes and
  culture. Its values, policies, practices,
  systems and structures support and accelerate
  learning for all who work in it.
• Generative and adaptive learning are the norm

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Learning Organization(A definition)

• A learning organization is one in which people at
  all levels, individually and collectively, are
  continually increasing their capacity to produce
  results they really care about.

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Producing Business Results

• Engine for Success

Quality of Relationship
Quality of Results
R
Quality of Thinking
Quality of Action