The Five Disciplines: An Empirical Approach for Complex Work

This presentation looks at the works of Dr. Peter Senge's seminal work, "The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization" as it relates to understanding complexity in a learning organization.

Transcript

1. The Five Disciplines: An Empirical Approach for Complex Work “
2. Agenda • Today’s Topic: The Five Disciplines: An Empirical Approach for Complex Work • Introduce Problem Statement • Classify Problem Statement • Applying a Five Discipline Empirical Approach to Complex Work • “Can We Talk” w/Joan Rivers & Sam Kinison • Individual and Organizational Barriers • Wrap-Up
3. Empirical Approach: When something is to be learned, an experiment is constructed to test a hypothesis; the experiment is designed to produce clear results (transparency), which are then observed (inspection) and used to confirm, disprove, or alter the hypothesis (Fowler, Fowler, & Ramachandran. 2019, p. 10-11) Problem Statement: Enabling employees and stakeholders to understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work Complex work is based upon the concept of complex adaptive systems (CAS) which is a dynamic networked system that are self-organizing, continually adapting and changing in relation to environmental conditions (Uhl-Bien & Arena. 2017, p. 11)
4. Problem Statement: ”Enabling employees and stakeholders to understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work" Is The Problem Statement a Command, Management, or Leadership problem?? (Grint, 2010)
5. The Five Disciplines Problem Statement: ”Enabling employees and stakeholders to understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work"
6. Problem Statement: ”Enabling employees and stakeholders to understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work" Hypothesis Null Hypothesis : Applying a “Five Disciplines” approach will not influence employees and stakeholders to understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work. Alternative Hypothesis: Applying a “Five Disciplines” approach will influence employees and stakeholders to understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work.
7. Problem Statement: ”Enabling employees and stakeholders to understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work" Study Methodology and Design Study will use a survey Questionnaire method to collect the data Dependent Variable (DV) Independent Variables (IV’s) Moderating Variable (MV) “Shared Vision” “Mental Models” “Personal Mastery” “Systems Thinking” “Team Learning” Complex Work 3:13
8. Five Disciplines Questionnaire (Example) 1 (Disagree) – 7 (Agree); N/A Shared Vision Q1. Do you have knowledge of the IS Strategic Vision? Q2. Do you have knowledge of your team initiative(s)? Q3. Does your team initiative (s) align with the IS Strategic Vision? Q4. Do you have the knowledge to articulate and foster a commitment to your team initiative (s)? Mental Models Q5. Do you have the ability to know, reflect on, question and clarify the assumptions and beliefs you hold about relevant issues? Q6. Personal Mastery Q7. Do you… Team Learning Q9. Systems Thinking Q10. Questionnaire (Survey)
9. “CAN WE TALK?”
10. Barriers to Problem Statement: Personal Mastery “If people do not share a common vision, and do not share common mental models about the business reality within which they operate, empowering people will only increase organizational stress and the burden of management to maintain coherence and direction (Senge, 2006, p. 136).” Problem Statement: ”Enabling employees and stakeholders to understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work"
11. Barriers to Problem Statement: The Non-Clarifying Mental Models Non-Clarifying Short-cutting Mental Model causing a “Cognitive Myopia” (tunnel vision)
12. Barriers to Problem Statement Narcissistic Leadership • Skilled orators and creative strategists, narcissists have vision and a great ability to attract and inspire followers o take advantage of their strengths while tempering their weaknesses o the larger-than-life leaders we are seeing today closely resemble the personality type that Sigmund Freud dubbed narcissistic o According to Freud, “People of this type impress others as being personalities,” describing one of the psychological types that clearly fall within the range of normality o “They are especially suited to act as a support for others, to take on the role of leaders, and to give a fresh stimulus to cultural development or damage the established state of affairs.” • Freud recognized that there is a dark side to narcissism. Narcissists, he pointed out o are emotionally isolated and highly distrustful o poor listeners and lack empathy o perceived threats can trigger rage o Achievements can feed feelings of grandiosity • Freud shifted his views about narcissism over time and recognized that we are all somewhat narcissistic (Maccoby, 2004) Problem Statement: ”Enabling employees and stakeholders to understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work"
13. Narcissistic Leadership: The differences between productive and unproductive narcissism • Productive narcissists have the audacity to push through the massive transformations that society periodically undertakes, e.g., Jack Welch and George Soros • They are not only risk takers willing to get the job done but also charmers who can convert the masses with their rhetoric • Unproductive narcissists lack self-knowledge and restraining anchors, becoming unrealistic dreamers. • They nurture grand schemes and harbor the illusion that only circumstances, or enemies block their success • The challenge facing organizations is to ensure that such leaders do not self-destruct or lead the company to disaster. • Narcissists need colleagues and even therapists if they hope to break free from their limitations • But because of their extreme independence and self- protectiveness, it is very difficult to get near them. • Because of their independence and aggressiveness, they are constantly looking out for enemies, sometimes degenerating into paranoia when they are under extreme stress Productive Narcissism Unproductive Narcissism (Maccoby, 2004)
14. Organizational Behavior Barriers: Competing Value(s) System (Cameron, Quinn, DeGraff, & Thakor, 2014)
15. Organizational Barriers Larman's Laws of Organizational Behavior 1. Organizations are implicitly optimized to avoid changing the status quo middle- and first-level manager and “specialist” positions & power structures. 2. As a corollary to (1), any change initiative will be reduced to redefining or overloading the new terminology to mean basically the same as status quo. 3. As a corollary to (1), any change initiative will be derided as “purist”, “theoretical”, “revolutionary”, "religion", and “needing pragmatic customization for local concerns” — which deflects from addressing weaknesses and manager/specialist status quo. 4. As a corollary to (1), if after changing the change some managers and single-specialists are still displaced, they become “coaches/trainers” for the change, frequently reinforcing (2) and (3). 5. (in large established orgs) Culture follows structure. And in tiny young orgs, structure follows culture. https://less.works/less/structure
16. Wrap-Up “In all these setting, openness, reflection, deeper conversations, personal mastery, and shared visions, uniquely energize change; and understanding the systemic causes of problems is crucial” (Senge, 2006, p. xvii).
17. Questions??
18. References Bui, H., & Baruch, Y. (2010). Creating Learning Organizations: A Systems Perspective. The Learning Organization, vol. 17 No.3, p.208-227. https://doi.org/10.1108/09696471011034919 Cameron, K. S., Quinn, R. E., DeGraff, J., & Thakor, A. V. (2014). Competing values leadership. Edward Elgar Publishing. Fillion, G., Koffi, V., & Ekionea, J. P. B. (2015). Peter Senge's learning organization: A critical view and the addition of some new concepts to actualize theory and practice. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 19(3), 73. Fowler, F. M., Fowler, F. M., & Ramachandran. (2019). Navigating Hybrid Scrum Environments. Apress. Grint, K. (2010). Wicked problems and clumsy solutions: the role of leadership. In The new public leadership challenge (pp. 169-186). Palgrave Macmillan, London. Maccoby, M. (2004). Narcissistic leaders: The incredible pros, the inevitable cons. Harvard Business Review, 82(1), 92-92 Pedler, M. (Ed.). (2016). Action learning in practice. Gower Publishing, Ltd. Psillos, S., & Curd, M. (2010). The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science (1. publ. in paperback ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 129–38. ISBN 978- 0415546133. Revans, R. (2011). ABC of Action Learning, Aldershot: Gower. Schwaber, K., & Sutherland, J. (2020). The scrum guide. Scrum Alliance. Senge, P.M. (2006). The Fifth Discipline. The Art & Practice of Learning Organization (revised). Doubleday Currency, New York. Senge, P. M. (2014. The Fifth discipline field book: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization (revised). Doupleday Currency, New York. Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R., Roth, G., Smith, B., & Guman, E. C. (1999). The dance of change: The challenges to sustaining momentum in learning organizations. Doupleday Currency, New York. Uhl-Bien, M., & Arena, M. (2017). Complexity leadership: Enabling people and organizations for adaptability. Organizational Dynamics, 46(1), 9– 20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.12.001