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Learning Organization Principles
for Westrec Principals
JIM SCHUMAN
FORTUNE, ALSWEET, WEISS & SCHUMAN, INC.
OCTOBER 15, 2014
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PREMISE
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Humans designed for learning
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Psychology 501
Experiences with children
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FACTS
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KIDS DON’T RESIST CHANGE
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They resist being changed…
Except when damp…
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PROVERBIAL “RIGHT” ANSWER
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RAMIFICATIONS
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React _______________________________
Guess _______________________________
Respond _____________________________
Peer _________________________________
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PROGRESSION OR REGRESSION
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PRESCHOOL TO ELEMENTARY TO MIDDLE TO HIGH
SCHOOL TO COLLEGE & BUSINESS
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Increasing ______________________
Folks do not want to
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Be _____________________________
Or look ________________________
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QUIZ: “WALLY”
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What kind of men can never die of old age?
___________________________________
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What three-letter word completes the first word and starts the second?
DON
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CAR
___________________
Why do women in Argentina own more shoes than women in
Columbia?
____________________________________
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Who are the most dependable staff in a hospital?
____________________________________
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What does a duck do if it flies upside down?
____________________________________
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How can a man switch off a light that’s 10 feet from his bed and then
get into bed before it is dark?
_____________________________________
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WHAT’D YA GET
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Right Answers?
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Competitions and comparisons…
Ramifications
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WHAT’D YOU LEARN?
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So what?
What’s worth knowing?
So What?
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STATISTICS AND DANG STATISTICS
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1990 versus 1980
69% of Fortune 500 industrials had _____________________
Dominant business philosophy:
“The top _________ and the local ________”
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Leaders focused on ________ or _________ of the organization.
Over-whelmed by the forces of status quo
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STATISTICS AND DANG STATISTICS
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In 2012, only 12% of those firms remained
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Key to survival --- and for those 88% who filled the ranks?
“Abilities to run experiments in the margin”
“Continually explored new business opportunities that
create new sources for growth & revenue”
Audience examples
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What companies come to mind?
Characteristics shared?
PETER SENGE & FUTURIST
NOTIONS AT MIT
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Understanding the past
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The world is made of circles
We have been thinking in straight lines…
Collaboration is vital to sustain profound or deep
change
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Without it, organizations are overwhelmed by the
___________________________
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Commitment cannot be forced
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Nudge, nudge --- inspire a little here and there
Back to the ________________________
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PETER SENGE & FUTURIST
NOTIONS AT MIT
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Senge & The Sloan School of Management
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Adaptive and generational thinking…
So What?
Creative answers!
His team understood that as change accelerated
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Then rapid adaptation had to follow
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PETER SENGE & FUTURIST
NOTIONS AT MIT
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Linear Steps ---- A to B to C to D no longer adequate
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Linear problems:
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S-S-M-T- _ - _ -F
J-F-M-A- _ - _
O-T-T- _ - _ -S-S-E- _ - _
78 + 67.5 – 3.97 + 30% of 180 = ______
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PETER SENGE & FUTURIST
NOTIONS AT MIT
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Generational problems:
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The English names of 2 major European cities fit the
pattern below
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Can you name them?
__U__ __CH
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PETER SENGE & FUTURIST
NOTIONS AT MIT
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Think of a five-letter answer to the clue on top. Then
add a “K” to the letters and rearrange them to
make a six letter answer to the clue on the bottom.
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Moisten the thanksgiving turkey __________________________
Woven item ___________________________
or
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Garden statuette ________________________
Laos border river ________________________
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SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE
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Principals must demonstrate and require increased
adaptability
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“The only sustainable competitive advantage is the
organization’s ability to learn faster than the
competition”
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So what?
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LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS
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Consummately adaptive & creative learning
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Targets
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Not just right answers
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Generative or creative answers
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What if?
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LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS
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Opportunities for constant renewal
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Through learning we re-create ourselves
Enabled to do new things
Do some things thought impossible
Re-perceive our world & relationship to it
Extend capacities to create & regenerate
Become part of a regenerative process
GENERATIONAL THINKING --REAL WORLD TESTS
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Applications
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Many clients are focusing on generative learning
strategies
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Creating and driving improvements
People and performance
TQM --- A process, not a program
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GENERATIONAL THINKING --REAL WORLD TESTS
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Evolution emphasis --- “Loopage”
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Competitive plan based on continuous study of data
and feedback
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Management focused on continuous improvement process
Appraisals rate and review performance
Requires new ways to look at the world
Understand systems that control events
React quickly
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Kaizen and Six Sigma ---- Worth your exploration?
Look at the new “generation” of companies
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LEADERS’ NEW WORK
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Today most successful organizations became
learning organizations
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Why did “old companies” become extinct
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Traditional leaders were people who set the company’s
direction
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Made key decisions
“Energized the troops…”
Charisma is their gift in the short term --- but a fickle asset
Incompetency was tolerated
LEADERSHIP IN LEARNING
ORGANIZATIONS
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Designers, Teachers, and Stewards --- Not
charismatic heroes
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Requires new skill sets:
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Ability to build a shared vision
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Ability to identify audiences
Ability to identify and challenge prevailing “mental models” or
ways that business is done
Ability to identify new products or services
Ability to foster new thinking
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LEADERSHIP IN LEARNING
ORGANIZATIONS
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Leaders in learning organizations are responsible for
building organizations where people are:
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Continually expanding their capabilities
Shaping the organization and their futures
Leaders are responsible for learning
And leading change
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CREATIVE TENSION
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Creative tension --- The integrating principle
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Leader’s vision begins with this principle
Current reality
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Seeing clearly where we want to be as an organization
Understanding “our vision”
Telling the truth about where we are---Our current reality
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CREATIVE TENSION
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Creative tension exercise
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Demonstration
So, what’d ya learn?
Analogies
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Gaps between vision and current reality
Two resolution options: Strategic Visions
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Raising current reality toward the vision
Lowering the vision
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CREATIVE TENSION
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Individuals, groups, teams and organizations who
learn how to work with creative tension use the
energy generated to move reality more reliably
toward their strategic vision
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Without vision there is no creative tension
Analysis paralysis
The principle of creative tension teaches that an accurate
picture of the current reality is as important as a compelling
picture of the desired future
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CREATIVE TENSION
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Leading through creative tension is different than
solving problems
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Problem solving usually involves external motivation
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Get it done!
Creative tension triggers intrinsic motivation
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What if…?
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NEW ROLES
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Traditional authoritarian image: The boss is calling
the shots
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Overly simplified and inadequate
Senge understands that leadership is intertwined with
“culture formation”
There have always been “designers, stewards and
teachers” in organizations
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However those roles take on new meaning in learning
organizations
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Demands new skills and tools
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NEW ROLES
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Imagine that your region, marina, resort, harbor,
park, rock company or office or affiliate is an ocean
liner and that you are the “Leader”.
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What is your role?
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________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
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NEW ROLES
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Neglected leadership role is “Designer”
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No one has more sweeping influence than the designer
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“Turn starboard 30 degrees…”
Rudder will only turn to port…
It’s futile to be the leader in an organization that is
poorly designed
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NEW ROLES
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Functions of design are rarely visible --- strategic
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“Social Architecture” takes place behind the scenes
Require thought and “EEEEP” factors
Patience and “MBWA” will show benefits far in the future
Key: building a foundation of purpose and core values
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NEW ROLES
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Leader as steward
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Subtlest role of leadership
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Leaders sense of leadership operates on two levels
Appreciation re the impact they have as models rather than critics
They involve folks so there is SE=SU=SC (courtesy Sandy!)
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SE:_______________________________________
SU:_______________________________________
SC:_______________________________________
Driving engagement or commitment opportunities
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Enrolled
Involved
Committed
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NEW ROLES
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Leader as steward
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All of us are smarter than one of us
Crafting strategies and fostering strategic---and lateral---thinking
Process
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Scenario analysis
Encourage managers to think through how they would lead
Ferret out implications
Planning as a learning opportunity
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NEW ROLES
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Leader as a teacher
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First responsibility: Define Reality
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The leader as teacher is not an authoritarian expert
Rather a collector of the views of others re the current reality
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Consider events, patterns of behavior & system’s structure
Team goals: Listen and learning and planning for today
& specific time frames
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Collaborate
Invent
Design
Impact
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LEADER’S FOCUS
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Where’s their attention and the organization’s
attention?
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Traditional organization: “Event Explanation”
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Dooms leader to a reactive stance to change
Pattern of behavior explanations
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Who did what to whom?
Focus on long-term trends & assessing implications
Explain how, over time, organization can respond to shifting
conditions
Structural explanations are the most powerful
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Address underlying causes of behavior such that patterns of
behavior can be changed
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SO WHAT?
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Most leaders focus attention on events & patterns of
behavior
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Leaders in learning organizations pay attention to
their responsibilities
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Under their direction, their organizations do likewise…
Designers, stewards and teachers
They teach and coach
They focus on stretching the organization with their
colleagues
They collaborate, invent, design and impact their
people customers & community
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED --- OR
YOU’LL NEVER FIND IT
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Check out the rubber band
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What’s next?
Be dissatisfied
What are you dissatisfied about?
What are you going to do about that?
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EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED---OR
YOU’LL NEVER FIND IT
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Daring you to chart your course
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When?
What will it take to achieve your goals?
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Incremental accomplishments toward attaining goals
Starting with “Making your bed…”
Bill’s introduction to video
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