Five Principles of Learning by Peter Senge March 27 2012
Learning organisation According to Peter Senge learning organisation are: organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the 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 to see the whole together.
Learning organisation The basic rationale is that in situations of rapid change only those that are flexible, adaptive and productive will excel. For this to happen organizations need to discover how to tap people s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels
Learning organisation Peter Senge identifies five principles of learning that are said to be converging to innovate learning organizations. They are: Systems thinking Personal mastery Mental models Building shared vision Team learning
Organizations learn only if individual employees who learn. Individual learning is a necessary, through not sufficient condition for organizational learning. But without it no organizational learning occurs
Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively It goes beyond competence and skills, although it involves them. Mastery is seen as a special kind of proficiency but it is not about dominance, but rather about calling.
People with a high level of personal mastery live in a continual learning mode. They never arrive. It is a process. It is a lifelong discipline. People with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence, their growth areas. And they are deeply self-confident.
The discipline entails developing: personal vision; holding creative tension recognizing structural tensions and constraints and our own power (or lack of it) a commitment to truth using the sub-conscious
Personal Vision What do you want in life? Where do you see yourself in society?
Personal Vision Real vision cannot be understood in isolation from the idea of purpose For example: Do you want to be rich?
Personal Vision The ability to focus on ultimate intrinsic desires, not only secondary goals (like having money or material goods) is the corner stone of personal mastery
Vision is different from purpose. Purpose is similar to a direction. Vision is specific destination. Purpose is abstract. Vision is concrete. Vision is intrinsic not relative. It is something you desire for its intrinsic value. It is also takes courage to hold to one s vision especially if the vision is not in mainstream of society.
Holding creative tension The essence of personal mastery is learning how to generate and sustain creative tension in our lives. The gap between vision and current reality is a source of creative energy. If there is no gap, there would be no need for any action to move toward the vision.
Holding creative tension Creative tension = the gap between the goals and the current reality, negative emotion may also arise. It is the force that comes into play at the moment when we acknowledge a vision that is odds with the current reality.
Holding creative tension Still, like regular tension, creative tension also creates tension, anxiety, hopelessness called emotional tension So what do people do?
Holding creative tension To release this tension, the lower the vision. It is the easiest thing to do and give us instant relieve. By saying, It was not important to run a mile in one minute. I was too ambitious. Or something like that.
Holding creative tension Emotional tension can often be relief by adjusting one of the poles current reality or vision. Usually, we lower the vision as it is under our control and changing reality take time. The price we pay is to abandoning what we really and truly want, our vision.
In organisation, goals are eroded because of low tolerance for emotional tension. Nobody wants to be the carrier of bad news. So what do they do? Pretend there is no bad news or better yet, declare victory to redefine the bad news as not so bad by lowering the standard. Somerset Maugham said Only mediocre people are always at their best.
On the other hand, when we understand creative tension and we do not lower our vision, we can use it as an active force. Truly creative people use the gap between vision and current reality to generate the energy. Perseverance and courage are needed.
Most of the time we may not reach our vision but the journey to reach our vision usually generates positive outcomes. For example: Intel s wish to maintain DRAM leadership. Though they drop out of the DRAM race, their efforts led them to create other positive outcomes like microprocessors.
For example: Alan Kay of Xerox had a vision of an electronic book called Dynabook that allowed children to be interactive with the story in 1970s. But he failed. However, his research led to the creation of icons and menus which was later used to transform PC with the use of Apple Mac or windows in PC.
It is not what the vision is, it is what the vision does. Having failed or failure leads to learning. Failure is simply a shortfall, evidence of the gap between vision and current reality. Failure is an opportunity for learning about inaccurate picture of current reality, about strategies that did not work as expected, about the clarity of the vision. Ed Land, founder of Polaroid had this on his wall A mistake is an event, the full benefit which has not yet been turned to your advantage.
Mastery of creative tension beings out a capacity for perseverance and patience. It leads to a fundamental shift in our posture towards reality. Current reality becomes the ally not the enemy. An accurate, insightful view of current reality is as important as a clear vision.
For example: The manner US people do business and Japanese do business. US arriving in Japan has a tight schedule to meet. They need to do this and that at a certain time. Therefore, time is the enemy. Whereas Japanese, take their time, drink tea, karaoke enjoy before talking about business. To them.. time is a friend.
What would you do if you had a life of absolutely no problems?
What would you do if you had a life of absolutely no problems? Most will say change it. Therefore, this shows, people don t resist change. They resist being change. The truly creative person knows that all creating is achieved through working with constraints. Without constraints there is no creating. Robert Fritz.
Structural conflict Read this: I can create my life exactly the way I want in all dimensions work, family, relationship, community and the larger world
Structural conflict Your belief in powerlessness and unworthiness. This is what is known as structural conflict. It is our own limitation. Our own self worthlessness.
Structural conflict Creative Tension
3 strategies to over come this Let the negativeness erode the goals. Conflict manipulation we try to manipulating ourselves into greater efforts by creating artificial conflicts. For example, the manager may give motivational speech saying how dire the company will be if we don t succeed. Therefore, we must work harder etc. Boss provides a negative vision to manipulate the staff to work harder to avoid it (negative reinforcement).
3 strategies to over come this Willpower. Most successful people use this. Persevere and patience and endurance. Will power gets stronger when we believe in our vision and ourselves.
Commitment to truth In order to begin to deal with our structural conflict, we simply must learn to tell the truth. By committing to truth, we tend to be more realistic of a situation. We recognise our shortcomings and our position.
Commitment to truth It means continually broadening our awareness, removing our limits and to continually challenge our theories of why things are the way it is. It also means continually deepening our understanding of the structures underlying current events.
Commitment to truth The power of truth, seeing reality more and more as it is, cleansing the lens of perception, awakening from selfimposing distorting of.
Subconscious It is through our all of us deal with complexity. What distinguishes people with high levels of personal mastery is they have developed a higher level of rapport between their normal awareness and their subconscious. What most of us take for granted, they approach it as a discipline. Like driving a car. We train our subconscious through practise.
Characteristics of People Expressing Personal Mastery 1 Creative Orientation 2 Deep sense of purpose 3 Ability to seek and tell the truth 4 Courage of Conviction and Ability to Choose 5 Awareness and expression of natural curiosity 6 Commitment to continuous lifelong learning 7 Ability to be self aware and reflect and adjust in the moment
Fundamental Orientation: REACTIVE CREATIVE Life Happens to me! I Make Life Happen!
Fundamental Orientation: Creative Tension
Key Points 1 Mind is the Key! 2 Some ways of thinking are more powerful than others. 3 Focus on the Results.
The Hay Model: How Managerial Excellence is Achieved Individual Competencies Job Requirements Managerial Style Organizational Climate Organizational Performance
Summary This is why people committed to continually developing personal mastery practice. They have strong focus on the desired result that they want or their vision. Focusing on the desired intrinsic result is a skill. It takes time and patience to develop. It takes discipline. Hence continuous practise or learning will led to personal mastery.