Posted by Yogesh Malhotra on March 18, 1998 at 00:21:21:

In Reply to: Re: Role of the Chief Knowledge Officer posted by Martyn R Jones on March 16, 1998 at 09:52:32:

Here are 'rough notes' on Senge's LO and his notion of the leader of
LO from an archived file.

The Leader's New Work: Building Learning Organizations
Author: Peter M. Senge
Journal: Sloan Management Review, Fall 1990, Vol 32(1)

Review by: Yogesh Malhotra Date: November 10, 1993
______________________________________________________________________________

Context: Increasing Complexity & Uncertainty -- CHANGE!!!

Surmise: "The rate at which organizations learn may become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage."

Questions: How can we build organizations in which continuous learning occurs?
What kind of person can best lead the learning organization?

Learning Organization: "...In which you cannot not learn because learning is so insinuated into the fabric of its life."
"...A group of people continually enhancing their capacity to create what they want to create."
(?? My Definition of Learning Organization: Organizations with an ingrained philosophy for anticipating, reacting and responding to change, complexity and uncertainty.)

Main Concept: Our prevailing systems of management and performance evaluation inhibit creativity, 'experimentation' and risk-taking. To survive and thrive in the face of increasing complexity, uncertainty, and information overload organizations require the integration of thinking and acting (the "collective genius") of employees at all levels.
(?? Focusing on Performing for Someone Else's Approval.)

Adaptive Learning vs. Generative Learning: Present view of learning organizations emphasize adaptive learning, which is about coping. Senge propounds that increasing adaptiveness is only the first stage in becoming a learning organization; corporations need to focus on generative learning which is about creating - it requires a "integrated" systemic outlook ("systems thinking") to enable one to go beyond 'reacting' or 'responding.'
(?? Doesn't adaption require creation? Isn't coping the prerequisite to creating?)
(?? Latent Need ("Customer Delight") - Isn't that what the Marketing Concept is all about?)
CEO's role in such an organization is to build organization where people are continually expanding their capabilities to shape their future -- i.e., leaders are responsible for learning. (Designer).

Creative Tension: The Integrating Principle: Seeing clearly what we want to be, our "vision," and telling the truth about where we are, our "current reality." (You Can What you Think You Can.)
(?? "Commitment" "our vision," "our current reality"?)

Leader as Designer:
First: "Designing the governing ideas of purpose, vision, and core values by which people will live."
(?? Designer of Ship - Main Leadership Role?)
Second: Policies, strategies, and structures that translate guiding ideas into business decisions.
Third: Creation of effective learning processes.

Leader as Teacher: Helping employees achieve more accurate, more insightful, and more empowering views of reality with major focus upon systemic structure.

Leader as Steward: Stewarding for the people they lead.
Stewarding for the large purpose or mission.

New Skills (Disciplines) required for the New Role:
Building Shared Vision
Encouraging Personal Vision
Communicating and Asking for Support
Visioning as an Ongoing Process
Blending Extrinsic and Intrinsic Visions
Distinguishing Positive from Negative Visions
(?? Negative Visions - 'Survival Problems' First?)
Surfacing and Testing Mental Models
Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy
Distinguishing Espoused Theory from Theory in Use
Recognizing and Defusing Defensive Routines
Systems Thinking
Seeing Interrelationships, Not Things, and Processes, Not Snapshots
Moving Beyond Blame
Distinguishing Detail Complexity from Dynamic Complexity
Focusing on Areas of High Leverage
Avoiding Symptomatic Solutions
Personal Mastery
Continually Clarifying and Deepening Personal Vision
Focusing ones Energies
Developing Patience
Seeing Reality Objectively
Team Learning
Raising the Collective IQ of the Group above the individuals
Dialogue - Talking and Thinking Together
"Teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning units in modern organizations; unless the team can learn, the organization cannot learn."

New Tools:
Systems Archetypes
Balancing Process with Delay, Limits to Growth, Shifting the Burden, Eroding Goals, Escalation, Tragedy of the Commons, Growth and Underinvestment.
Charting Strategic Dilemmas
Eliciting the Dilemmas, Mapping, Processing, Framing/Contextualizing, Sequencing, Waving/Cycling, Synergizing.
"The Left-Hand Column": Surfacing Mental Models
Learning Laboratories: Practice Fields for Management Teams

Additional References: "The Learning Organization Made Plain: An Interview with Peter Senge," Training & Development, Oct. 1991.

• Yogesh Malhotra

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