Learning Organization - Creating a Learning Organization and Leading it

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Knowledge economy, teamwork, Top management, learning, study, practise, I learned something, Jack Welch, Boston Celtics

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Leading a Learning Organization Contd...

Leader as a Teacher Contd...
Reality can be viewed at three different levels: events, patterns of behaviors, and systemic structure. Now the question is where does a leader focus his attention, and the attention of the organization? Contemporary society concentrates mostly part on events. The media encourages this by highlighting short-term, and dramatic events. It tries to explain what is happening in terms of the events. For example, stock market analysts may say that Sensex has dropped because Prime Minister got ill. Analysts believe in this explanation and people naturally accept this explanation. But there can be a pattern in this Sensex drop and earlier drops. Trend analysis takes care of this. Reality can be understood at this pattern level as well. Systemic structural explanations seek to explain "what causes the pattern of behavior." There can be some underlying chronic problem or reason which is causing these patterns of behavior. Understanding reality at this systemic level is understanding the persisting problem or reason. All the three level explanations are right. But these explanations are different in their usefulness.

Explanations that explain events promote a reactive stance to change. Pattern of behavior explanations attempt to identify long-term trends and measure their implications. These explanations help organizations over a period of time to adapt to changing circumstances. Structural explanations are the most beneficial. They try to provide explanations on underlying causes of behavior. With these explanations they offer a hope that patterns of behavior can be changed to organization's advantage. Today's leaders mostly concentrate on events and to a lesser extent on patterns of behavior. Under their leadership, organizations also largely do the same (concentrate more on events and to a certain extent on patterns of behavior). This is the reason why most of the organizations are reactive and a few are generative. Leaders in learning organizations try to understand reality at all the three levels but concentrate more on systematic structure. They also encourage their people to do the same. As a result, learning organizations are better prepared for the future.

Leader as a Steward
Regarding the role of leader as steward, Peter Senge says, "This is the subtlest role of leadership. Unlike the roles of designer and teacher, it is almost solely a matter of attitude. It is an attitude critical to learning organizations." Peter Senge says that while people have realized that stewardship is an aspect of leadership, its source is not properly understood. He feels that Robert Greenleaf's seminal book, Servant Leadership, provides some explanation on stewardship. In this book, Greenleaf says, "The servant leader is servant first...It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. This conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions."

As a steward, a leader can operate at two levels. First, stewardship for people and second, stewardship for the larger mission that underlies the organization. At the first level, the leader understands the impact his leadership can have on his people. He understands that people can suffer economically, emotionally, and spiritually under incompetent leadership. People working in a learning organization are going to be more influenced by their leader due to their commitment and sense of ownership. A leader who understands all this develops a sense of responsibility.

At the second level, leaders of learning organizations have a sense of personal purpose and commitment towards achieving their organization's larger mission. As Peter Senge says, they unleash energies of their people by appealing to their natural impulse to learn. They do this by engaging their people in endeavor they consider worthy of their fullest commitment. Lawrence Miller [4] puts it beautifully, "Achieving return on equity does not, as a goal, mobilize the most noble forces of our soul." Leaders involved in building learning organizations feel part of a higher purpose that extends beyond their organization. They attempt to transform the way businesses operate with the conviction to create organizations that are more productive; that can achieve higher levels of organizational successes; and that provide personal satisfaction.