Communities of Commitment: the Heart of Learning Organizations

Home , Peter Senge

Work at the MIT Center for Organizatiotial Learning shows that developing new organizational capabilities requires deep reflection and testing.

Communities of Commitment: The Heart of Learning Organizations

FRED KOFMAN PETER M. SENGE

hy do we confront learning opportuni- breakthroughs via partnership between re- W ties witb fear rather than wonder? Why searchers and practitioners. do we derive our self-esteem from knowing Two years of intense practice and reflec- as opposed to learning? Why do we criticize tion have gone by. Some pilot projects are be- before we even understand? Why do we cre- ginning to produce striking results. But we ate controlling bureaucracies when we at- also have learned that it is crucial to address tempt to form visionary enterprises? And the opening questions. We have not found why do we persist in fragmentation and any definitive answers—nor were we looking piecemeal analysis as the world becomes for them—but, dwelling in the questions, we more and more interconnected? have found guiding principles for action. Such questions have been the heart of our Building learning organizations, we are work for many years. They led to the theories discovering, requires basic shifts in how we and methods presented in The Fifth Disciptine. think and interact. The changes go beyond in- They are the driving force behind a new vi- dividual corporate cultures, or even the cul- sion of organizations, capable of thriving in a ture of Western management; they penetrate world of interdependence and change—what to the bedrock assumptions and habits of our we have come to call "learning organiza- culture as a whole. We are also discovering tions." that moving forward is an exercise in person- The Fifth Disciptine generated significant al commitment and community building. As interest, but a book is only one step toward Dr. W. Edwards Deming says, nothing hap- bringing a new set of ideas and practices into pens without "personal transformation." And the mainstream of management. Shortly after the only safe space to allow for this transfor- the book appeared, a group of us at MIT es- mation is a learning community. tablished the Center for Organizational So, we are coming to see our efforts as Learning. The center now involves many or- building "communities of commitment." ganizations—including Ford, Harley David- Without commitment, the hard work re- son, Electronic Data Systems, Federal Express, quired will never be done. People will just AT&T, Philips North America, Herman keep asking for "examples of learning organi- Miller, Armco Steel, and Intel—seeking major zations" rather than seeking what they can do to build such organizations. They will keep believing that the purpose of learning is the survival of an organization rather than its gen- erativeness. And the larger meaning of this work will elude them. Without communities of people genuinely committed, there is no real chance of going forward.

BUT COMMITMENT TO WHAT? In this paper we will explore basic shifts in the guiding ideas of contemporary management. We argue that the main dysfunctions in our Fred Kofman is an assistant professor of ac- institutions—fragmentation, competition, and counting and management at MIT's Sloan reactiveness—are actually byproducts of our School of Management and an associate re- success over thousands of years in conquering searcher at both the Center for Organiza- the physical world and in developing our sci- tional Learning and the Leaders for Manu- entific, industrial culture. So, it should come as facturing Program. He teaches in such areas no surprise that these dysfunctions are deeply as accounting for manufacturing, manage- rooted. Nor should it surprise us that our first ment accounting and control, and systems response, "to overcome these problems" is thinking for organizational learning. part of the very mindset that generated them. Dr. Kofman came to systems thinking and Fragmentation, competition, and reactiveness organizational learning through an atypical are not problems to be solved—they are path. This started with a Licenciatura en frozen patterns of thought to be dissolved. Economia from the University of Buenos The solvent we propose is a new way of Aires and continued with a Ph.D. in eco- thinking, feeling, and being: a culture of sys- nomics at the University of California, Berke- tems. Fragmentary thinking becomes sys- ley. After concentrating in the design of so- temic when we recover "the memory of the cial mechanisms for several years, he found whole," the awareness that wholes actually the abstract approach of game and contract precede parts. Competition becomes coopera- theory unsatisfactory. The search for a more tion when we discover the "community na- practical framework took him to Berkeley's ture of the self" and realize our role as chal- philosophy department, where he studied lengers to help each other excel. Reactiveness cognitive science, philosophy of language, becomes creating when we see the "genera- and philosophy of mind. tive power of language," how language brings He has led research projects in such areas forth distinctions from the undivided flow of as activity based costing, cycle time reduc- Ufe. tion, and supply chain management at Gen- Together these changes represent a new eral Motors, Chrysler, Boeing, Electronic "Galilean Shift." Galileo's heliocentric revolu- Data Systems, Digital Equipment, and other tion moved us from looking at the earth as the companies. center around which all else revolved to see- He received the Sloan Teacher of the Year ing our place in a broader pattern. In the new Award and Outstanding Professor-Graduate systems worldview, we move from the prima- Course Award in 1992. cy of pieces to the primacy of the whole, from absolute truths to coherent interpretations, from self to community, from problem solving to creating. Thus the nature of the commitment required to build learning organizations goes beyond people's typical "commitment to their organizations." It encompasses commitment to changes needed in the larger world and to seeing our organizations as vehicles for bringing about such changes. This is a theoretical paper for practitioners. Contradictory as it may sound, there is nothing more practical than a good theory. The problem with "seven step methods to success," "keys to successful organizations," and similar "how-tos" is that, ultimately, they aren't very practical. Life is too complex and effective action too contextual. Real learning—the development of new capabilities— Peter M. Senge is a faculty member of the occurs over time, in a continuous cycle of the- Massachusetts Institute of Technology and oretical action and practical conceptualization. director of the Center for Organizational The impatient quest for improvements all too Learning at MIT's Sloan School of Manage- often results in superficial changes that leave ment. He is the author of the widely ac- deeper problems untouched. Herein lies a claimed book. The Fifth Discipline: The Art core leadership paradox: Action is critical, but and Practice of the Learning Organization. the action we need can spring only from a re- published by Doubleday. He is also a found- flective territory that includes not only cogni- ing partner of the management consulting tion but body, emotions, and spirit as well. and training firm, Innovation Associates. Dr. Senge has lectured extensively throughout the world, translating the abstract ideas of systems theory into tools for better AREAS OF CULTURAL understanding of economic and organization- DYSFUNCTION al change. His areas of special interest focus Organizations are microcosms of the larger so- on decentralizing the role of leadership in an ciety. Thus, at the heart of any serious effort to organization to enhance the capacity of all alter how organizations operate lies a concern people to work productively toward common with addressing the basic dysfunctions of our goals. Dr. Senge's work articulates a corner- larger culture. We believe that there are three stone position of human values in the work- fundamental problems with our current place; namely, that vision, purpose, align- paradigm: fragmentation, competition, and ment, and systems thinking are essential if reactiveness. organizations are to realize their potentials. He has worked with leaders in business, education, healthcare, and government. Fragmentation Dr. Senge received a B.S. in engineering We continually fragment problems into from Stanford University, an M.S. in social pieces; yet the major challenges we face in our systems modeling and a Ph.D. in manage- organizations and beyond are increasingly ment from MIT. He lives with his wife and two systemic. children in central Massachusetts. The analytic way to address a complex situation is to break it into components, study each component in isolation, and then syn- thesize the components back into a whole. For a wide range of issues, there is little loss in as- suming a mechanical structure and ignoring systemic interactions. But for our most impor- "walls" or "chimneys" that separate different tant problems, linear thinking is ineffective. functions into independent and often war- Problems like runaway costs in our health ring fiefdoms. Product designers, for instance, care system or the decline of a corporation's disregard marketing surveys and "throw the vitality and innovativeness resist piecemeal, product over the wall" to manufacturing, analytic approaches. We live in a world that is which finds the design impossible to produce. more like Humpty Dumpty than a jigsaw After making the "appropriate" changes (ap- puzzle: All the king's horses and all the king's propriate in their minds, since they never men can't put the system together again. bother to check back with design) and pro- Our enchantment with fragmentation ducing the product, manufacturing "throws it starts in early childhood. Since our first school over" to sales. Salesmen find themselves stuck days, we learn to break the world apart and with a low-quality product that does not meet disconnect ourselves from it. We memorize customer requirements. The product gets sent isolated facts, read static accounts of history, back and departments start blaming each oth- study abstract theories, and acquire ideas un- er. This process constantly repeats itself. related to our Ufe experience and personal as- In public affairs, fragmentation is making pirations. Economics is separate from psy- our society increasingly ungovernable. We chology, which is separate from biology, know the problem as the dominance of "spe- which has Uttle connection with art. We even- cial interest groups" and political lobbies. tually become convinced that knowledge is Pointing fingers at each other is now a fa- accumulated bits of information and that vorite national sport, but recently a new vari- learning has little to do with our capacity for ant has appeared: pointing fingers at the effective action, our sense of self, and how we walls. Academics, consultants, and managers exist in our world. unite in blaming the barbed-wire fences sep- Today, fragmentation is the cornerstone arating organizational functions for poor- of what it means to be a professional, so much quality, high-cost products. In response, so that we call ourselves "specialists." Ac- many companies are trying to "reengineer" countants worry about the books, operations themselves away from stovepipe structures managers worry about production and in- and toward horizontal business processes ventory, marketing managers worry about that cut across traditional functions and pow- customer base, and nobody worries about the er hierarchies. While potentially significant, business as a whole. such changes often prove difficult to imple- The word health has the same roots as ment and those that are implemented only "whole" (the old English hal, as in "hale and "reap the low-hanging fruit." hearty"). Like people, organizations can get The reason is that the walls that exist in sick and die. They also need to be cured and the physical world are reflections of our men- healed. Yet, like physicians who focus only on tal walls. Tbe separation between the differ- their specialty, most consultants operate from ent functions is not just geographic, it lives in the analytic tradition. They fragment complex tbe way we think. Redesigns that "tbrow situations into symptoms, treat the symp- down the walls" between different functions toms, and rarely inquire into the deeper caus- may have little enduring effect unless they es of problems: how we learn and act togeth- also change the fragmentary mental models er with a sense of shared aspiration. that created the walls in the first place. Consequently, management experts have very little ability to influence organizational health. All too often, their solutions contribute Competition to a vicious pattern of "programs of the We have become overdependent on competi- month" that fail and get replaced by the next tion, to the extent that it is our only model for program of the month. change and learning. In business, fragmentation results in There is nothing intrinsically wrong with competition. It can be great fun. It can pro- ganizations that rank our performance on the mote invention and daring. The problem is basis of management-by-objectives. thtit we have lost the balance between com- In response, many of us have developed petition and cooperation precisely at a time defenses that have become second nature— when we most need to work together. like working out our problems in isolation, al- In the United States, we tend to see com- ways displaying our best face in public, and petition among individuals as the ultimate never saying "I don't know." The price we mechanism for change and improvement in pay is enormous. In fact, we become masters human affairs. We continually think in terms of what Chris Argyris calls "skilled incompe- of war and sports analogies when we inter- tence," skillful at protecting ourselves from pret management challenges. We need to the threat and pain that come with learning, "beat the competition," "overcome resistance but also remaining incompetent and blinded to our new program," "squeeze concessions to our incompetence. from the labor union," or "take over this new Overemphasis on competition also rein- market." We have a metaphorical tunnel vi- forces our fixation on short-term measurable sion. We rarely think about how the process results. Consequently, we lack the discipline of developing leaders may be more like par- needed for steady practice and deeper learn- enting than competing, or about how devel- ing, which often produces few manifest con- oping a new culture may be more like gar- sequences for long periods of time. dening than a military campaign. The quick-fix mentality also makes us Fascinated with competition, we often "system blind." Many of today's problems find ourselves competing with the very peo- come from yesterday's solutions, and many of ple with whom we need to collaborate. Mem- today's solutions will be tomorrow's prob- bers of a management team compete with lems. What is most perplexing is that many one another to show who is right, who knows quick fixes, from cost cutting to marketing more, or who is more articulate or persuasive. promotions, are implemented even though Divisions compete with one another when no one believes they address underlying they ought to cooperate to share knowledge. problems. But we still feel compelled to im- Team project leaders compete to show who is plement these "solutions." We need to show the best manager, even if it means covering results, and fast, regardless of the long-term, up problems for which, ultimately, everyone system-wide consequences. will pay. Recently, Dr. Deming told a story of a man who discovered he was continually competing with his wife. The man was dumb- Reactiveness founded at the discovery. "Who would want We have grown accustomed to changing only to be married to a loser?" he asked. in reaction to outside forces, yet the well- Our overemphasis on competition makes spring of real learning is aspiration, imagina- looking ^ood more important than k'm^good. tion, and experimentation. The resulting fear of not looking good is one As children, we accomplish some of our of the greatest enemies of learning. To learn, most astounding learning without any exter- we need to acknowledge that there is some- nal motivation. We learn to walk, we learn to thing we don't know and to perform activities talk, we learn to be human not because we that we're not good at. But in most corpora- have to but because we want to. Eventually, tions, ignorance is a sign of weakness; tempo- however, we become conditioned to reacting rary incompetence is a character flaw. to others' directions, to depending on others' How impossible it would be for a child to approval. There is nothing intrinsically wrong learn to walk if she were afraid of falling and with external authority; it would be inefficient looking foolish. Yet, that is exactly what hap- to learn about the dangers of fingers-in-plugs pened in schools that made us feel foolish experientially. The problem is that our cur- when we made mistakes, and continues in or- rent institutions exercise authority in a way that undermines our intrinsic drive to learn. tion of crisis. Crises can produce episodes of For most of us, reactiveness was rein- change. But they produce little learning. forced on a daily basis in school. We solved Moreover, management by fear and crisis problems identified by others, read what was becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because it assigned, wrote what was required. Gradual- does produce short-term results, managers see ly, reactiveness became a way of life. Fitting their crisis orientation as vindicated, people in in, being accepted, became more important the organization grow accustomed to "wait- than being ourselves. We learned that the ing for the next crisis," managers' belief in the way to succeed was to focus on the teachers' apathy of the troops is reinforced, and they questions as opposed to our own. become more predisposed to generate the Reactiveness is a double bane of continu- next crisis. ous learning. First, the attitude, "if it ain't broke don't fix it," prevents the steady improvement of products and processes. More- over, when something is broken, the immedi- ROOTS OFOUR ate reaction is to call an expert—a CULTURAL CRISIS specialist—to fix it. Regardless of the special- These problems are deeply rooted. They are ist's success, his intervention will create a not just mistakes we keep repeating—they black-box mentality that prevents the organi- spring directly from our past successes. The zation from developing its own capacities for triumph of reductionism and mechanical continual learning. thinking has given rise to a set of conditions The pervasiveness of a reactive stance in for which they are no longer suited. management is evident in the fixation on Humankind has achieved unimaginable problem solving. Many managers think that successes in controlling its physical and sodal management is problem solving. But problem environment. We have come a long way since solving is fundamentally different from creat- the days in which our ancestors had to de- ing. The problem solver tries to make some- fend themselves from other animals, work thing go away. A creator tries to bring some- continually to secure food, and survive in ex- thing new into being. The impetus for change treme weather conditions. We have learned in problem solving lies outside ourselves—in to create safe dwellings, increase our food some undesired external condition we seek to supply, harness powerful sources of energy, eliminate. The impetus for change in the cre- and provide a level of material well-being be- ating mode comes from within. Only the cre- yond that previously available only to monar- ating mode leads to a genuine sense of indi- chs. In doing so, we have continually adapted vidual and collective power, because only in and changed our environment to our benefit, the creating mode do people orient them- to the point that today we appear on the selves to their intrinsic desires. It is a testa- verge of modifying the very genetic code that ment to how reactive we are that many lead- programs our species' development. ers see the absence of vision as a "problem" to But this progress has not been without be solved in their company and set about consequence. The very same skills of separa- writing and disseminating vision and mission tion, analysis, and control that gave us the statements as the solution. power to shape our environment are produc- It is a small step from the problem-solving ing ecological and social crises in our outer orientation to a system of management that is world, and psychological and spiritual crises dominated by fear, the ultimate external mo- in our inner world. Both these crises grow out tivator. This is evident today in the simple fact of our success in separating ourselves from that most leaders believe that people are will- the larger fabric of life. When we begin to un- ing to change only in times of crisis. This leads derstand the origins of our problems, we be- to the most pervasive leadership strategy in gin to see that the "existential crisis" of early America—create a crisis, or at least a percep- 20th century philosophy and the "environ-

10 mental crisis" of late 20th century ecology are ways of thinking and acting is no less catas- inseparable—caused by the co-evolution of trophic in organizations. Most of the primary fragmentary world views, social structures, threats to survival and vitality in organiza- lifestyles, and technology. tions develop slowly, and they are not caused There are two aspects to the story: one evo- externally. The problems of General Motors lutionary and one cultural. The first concerns and IBM, for instance, did not arise overnight. deep patterns of behavior established in the hu- Arrogance, insulation, and rigidification de- man organism over millions of years. The sec- veloped over decades of success. At IBM, ond concerns deep cultural beliefs that proba- even as the symptoms of decline became bly started with the agricultural revolution. more and more apparent, the sustained prof- Throughout our history as a species, the itability of the core mainframe products al- primary threats to our survival came as sud- lowed managers and investors to ignore den dramatic events: saber-tooth tigers, growing signals of trouble. Only when an floods, earthquakes, attacks by rival tribes. To- overwhelming crisis {record losses) occurred day, the primary threats to our survival are was there sufficient alarm to take bold action. slow, gradual processes—environmental de- Thus our evolutionary programming pre- struction, the global arms race (which contin- disposes us to seeing external threats and to ues unabated by the breakup of the Soviet reactiveness. Layered onto it is a culture of Union), and decay of our nation's education- fragmentation and competition, and together al system and its family and community struc- they hold us captive. But the capacity can be ture. loosened if we begin to understand that our We are poorly prepared for a world of cultural history is but one historical path, a slowly developing threats. We have a nervous path that could have drifted toward a differ- system focused on external dramatic events. ent present. The first step in exposing this il- A loud noise or a sharp change in our visual lusory "naturalness" of our present way of field brings us immediately to alert. Our thinking is to reflect on its genealogy. As adrenaline system heightens our awareness David Bohm, a preeminent quantum physi- and strength. In extreme cases, our nervous cist put it: "Starting with the agricultural rev- system produces a state of shock that filters olution, and continuing through the industri- signals of physical pain, allowing continued al revolution, increasing fragmentation in the reasoning and decision making. The irony is social order has produced a progressive frag- that all of these capabilities become potential- mentation in our thought." ly counterproductive in a world of slow, grad- There is growing evidence that many ually emerging systemic crises. All our in- pre-agricultural societies were not dominated stincts are to wait until the gradual changes by fragmentation and competition. The evi- develop into crises—when it is often too late dence is controversial because it contradicts to take effective action. the established orthodoxy to view ancient so- Moreover, past threats were external; cieties as having always been like us, but "less their causes were outside our control. Today's civilized." primary threats are all endogenous, the Thomas Merton wrote of the magnificent byproducts of our own actions. There is no Monte Alban culture that flourished in south- enemy out there to blame. As Pogo says, "We western Mexico from about 500 BC to about have met the enemy and they is us." Nor will 500 AD with "no evidence of militarism or blaming ourselves individually help. The war.... Self-realization in such a context im- causes lie in collective behaviors and unin- plied not so much ego-consciousness of the tended side effects of actions that make indi- isolated subject in the face of a multitude of vidual sense. There is no blame, there is no objects as the awareness of a network of rela- guilt, just a need to think differently. tionships in which one had a place to mesh. This conflict between the nature of our One's identity was the intersection of cords most important problems and our instinctive where one 'belonged.'"

11 Joseph Campbell spoke of the ancient the church—in fact, it was the strategy used to Indo-European myth of the Goddess who differentiate the sect that eventually became "teaches compassion for all living beings. the church from other early Christian sects There also you come to appreciate the real that had very different interpretations of Je- sanctity of the earth itself, because it is the sus' teachings. "What we call Cbristianity (to- body of the Goddess." Recent advances in day) actually represents only a small selection archeological research are suggesting that the of specific sources, chosen from among myth of the Goddess may have predominated dozens," according to Pagels. throughout central Europe in the late Pale- In particular, recently discovered "Gnos- olithic and early Neolithic cultures. These cul- tic gospels," banned as heresy by the early tures may have been neither warlike nor male church, are based on belief in the human ca- dominated, as long assumed. Riane Eisler pacity for direct knowing or gnosis. "To know claims that the period from approximately oneself," says Pagels, "at the deepest level, is 5000 BC to 1500 BC was a "remarkably peace- simultaneously to know God; this is the secret ful time," with little evidence of fortifications of gnosis." "Abandon the search for God," or implements of warfare. Men and women wrote the Gnostic teacher Monoimus. "Look shared power, and there was an overarching for him by taking yourself as the starting "quality of mind" based on "recognition of point. If you carefully investigate these mat- their oneness with nature." Such "partner- ters, you will find him in i/ourself." By contrast, ship" cultures were eventually transcended by by the second century, the architects of the "dominator" cultures, according to Eisler—the early church had established a very different cultures of the "thunderbolt hurlers, Uke Zeus view, the church as intermediary between or Yahweh," according to Campbell. Many man and God. According to Pagels, "God be- now believe that the last broad flowering of came accessible to humanity [only] through partnership cultures in Europe occurred in the the church." Minoan civilization on Crete. Thus were sown the seeds of the frag- The classic Greek culture and the emerg- mentation evident today. Their fruit has ing Christian era mark crucial crossroads that grown steadily. "The belief that man was sep- lead directly to the contemporary Western arate from nature," writes Krishnamurti, scientific and religious world views. "evolved into the idea that nature was a re- In ancient Greece, the world was a "cos- source for man's benefit. Nature became a mos," not an inert environment ruled by the "resource," a "standing in reserve." We be- abstract laws of physics. The earth was the came the masters of the world with a license space where gods and mortals shared their to exploit it. We stopped living as part of na- passion, wisdom, and folly. The Greeks ture and began living with disposable things walked with the gods. But classical Greek that were just waiting to be used. "Because thought also established the foundation for we do not love the earth and the things of the the "scientific" view—the view that later set earth but merely utilize them," said Krishna- man as an observer apart from the world. murti, "we have lost touch with life." Two-thousand years later, building on Aristo- tle's classical category theory, Descartes pro- pounded a rigorous split between subject and object, observer and observed, human and A GALILEAN SHIFT nature. The analytic model assigns a primary status to If classic Greece laid the foundation for the parts and assumes that they exist inde- justifying the split of man and nature, the pendent from a whole, fhis view generates CathoUc Church institutionalized the split be- deep inconsistencies that lie behind many of tween man and God. According to Elaine our most pressing social and organizational Pagels, professor of religion at Princeton, the problems. Its flaws are not surface but struc- split lay at the very heart of the foundation of tural: David Bohm argues that the quest "to

12 put the pieces together" is fundamentally fu- Second, to understand a system we need tile when operating from a belief in the pri- to understand how it fits into the larger sys- macy of parts, "like trying to assemble the tem of which it is a part. To use an example of fragments of a shattered mirror." Worse yet, Russell Ackoff's, we will never understand the analytic model doesn't accept its contin- why standard cars have seats for four or five gent status. It adopts the face of necessity and if we look at the physical properties of its ele- claims universal validity. As Bohm says, ments. Human beings create teleological sys- "Thought creates the world and then says, 'I tems, systems with purpose. To understand didn't do it.'" the car design, we need to see how it fits into Our work at the center began by putting a society of families who travel together. separation and fragmentation into their his- Third, and most important, what we call torical context. This prepared us for the next the parts need not be taken as primary. In step: exposing the limits of analysis and de- fact, how we define the parts is fundamental- veloping an alternative paradigm—one that ly a matter of perspective and purpose, not in- can help to recover the memory of the whole. trinsic in the nature of the "real thing" we are As we move forward, we can use three looking at. fundamental theses to shift our understand- For example, consider an airplane. We ing of ourselves and the world in which we might say that it is made of the fuselage, the live. Just as Galileo proposed that the earth wings, the tail, and a cockpit. But we might was not the center of the universe, we are also say it is made of metal parts and plastic proposing here that parts, ego, and reality are parts. We might also say it is made of a right not the center of a more meaningful way of half and a left half, and so on. What makes an life. Each reflects the fragmented world view airplane cannot be found in the parts—after we have come to accept. Each needs to be re- all, a submarine also has a fuselage and a examined. tail—but in how the parts emerge as distinctions from a coherent whole. Rather than being objective, what we call 1. The Primacy of the Whole the parts is highly subjective. No set of cate- The analytic perspective involves a three-part gories is natural or inherent to a system. There process; (1) break the system into its compo- is no intrinsic right or wrong. It is a matter of nent parts, (2) study each part in isolation, purpose and awareness of choices, and of re- and (3) assemble an understanding of the membering the genealogy of categories in- whole from an understanding of the parts. voked—the distinctions that we now see "out The implicit assumption is that systems are there" arose within a certain tradition and are aggregates of parts that interact relatively contingent on it. weakly and in a linear fashion. In this notion Rather than thinking of a world of "parts" of systems, one can restrict attention to the that form "wholes," we start by recognizing parts and trust that optimizing each one that we live in a world of wholes within amounts to optimizing the whole. wholes. Rather than trying to "put the pieces Decomposition is a time honored way of together" to make the whole, we recognize dealing with complex problems, but it has big that the world is already whole. limitations in a world of tight couplings and At the same time, the systems view recog- nonlinear feedbacks. Tlie defining characteris- nizes that distinctions enable the observer to tic of a system is that it cannot be understood as draw forth operational worlds. The whole may a function of its isolated components. First, the be more fundamental, but it is unmanageable. behavior of the system doesn't depend on what For example, the division of labor enabled so- each part is doing but on how each part is in- cieties to achieve levels of material well-being teracting with the rest. A car's engine may be that would have otherwise been impossible. working just fine, but if the transmission col- Henry Ford would have never been able to umn is detached from it, the car won't move. build as many cars as fast and as economically 13 as he did had he not divided operations ac- We normally think that the individual cording to Frederick Taylor's principles. has a primordial origin and that selfhood is But, once the workers become "workers" given to each one independent of the cultur- and the supervisors became "supervisors," al or group practices in which that person rigidity sets in. To reestablish fluidity, the ca- happens to grow up. But, as Clifford Geertz pacity for learning and change, we must re- says, "There is no such thing as human nature member the contingent nature of the distinc- independent of culture." tions within which we are trapped. We must When we forget about the social milieu once again confront the whole. Reflecting on in which we exist as people, we attain a spu- what this means with one another, Martin rious security and stability. We identify our Buber said: egos with our selves. We take the contingent features of our current character and reify Even as a melody is not composed of them into a substantive personality. Thus, we tones, nor a verse of words, nor a stat- assign a primordial value to our ego (part) ue of lines—one must pull and tear to and see the community (whole) as sec- turn a unity into a multiplicity—so it is ondary. We see the community as nothing with the human being to whom I say but a network of contractual commitments in Thou. I can abstract from him the color symbolic and economic exchanges. We think of his hair or the sound of his speech or that encounters with others are transactions the style of his graciousness; I can do that can add or subtract to the array of pos- this again and again; but immediately sessions of the ego. he is no longer my Thou. But the constitution of the self happens only in a community. The community sup- 2. The Community Nature of the Self ports certain ways of being and constrains the expressions of individuality to certain pat- Newtonian physicists were startled to discov- terns of behavior—whatever we regard as er that at the core of the atom, at the center of acting "crazy" or inappropriate expresses our matter there is ... nothing, no thing, pure en- community of origin and upbringing much ergy. When they reached into the most fun- more than our intrinsic predispositions. damental building block of nature, they As with all deep cultural assumptions, found a pregnant void—stable patterns of the assumed primacy of the ego-self hides its probability striving to connect with other pat- contingent status, until we discover a differ- terns of probability. This discovery revolu- ent culture. For example, in many indigenous tionized the physical sciences, initiating the cultures of southern Africa the common quantum era. greeting is "I see you." What it means to be a By the same token, we are startled to dis- person in such a culture is to be in relation- cover that at the core of the person, at the cen- ship. When we confront such a culture, ter of selfhood there is ... nothing, pure ener- where speaking a person's name acknowl- gy. When we reach into the most edges that person's existence, it seems fundamental basis of our being we find a "crazy" to us. After all, for us, the "self" is my- pregnant void, a web of relationships. When self, isolated from other selves. somebody asks us to talk about ourselves, we But a systems view of life suggests that talk about family, work, academic back- the self is never "given" and is always in the ground, sports affiliations, etc. In all this talk, process of transformation. Whenever we do where is our "self"? The answer is nowhere, not take the other as an object for use, when- because the self is not a thing, but, as Jarome ever we see the other as a legitimate fellow Brunner says, "a point of view that unifies the human being with which we can learn and flow of experience into a coherent narra- change^—a "Thou"—we engage in a passion- tive"—a narrative striving to connect with ate interaction that can open new possibilities other narratives and become richer. for our being. 14 3. Language as Generative Practice sooner or later stalls our capacity to deal fresh- ly with the world and each other. In our everyday sense of the world, we see re- The map is not the territory, but we can ality as "out there" and ourselves as observers only guide ourselves with maps. As cartogra- "in here." Our Western tradition compels us to phers, however, we are far from neutral. Our "figure out" how nature works so that we can perceptual apparatus, with its biological, per- achieve what we want. But what if what shows sonal, and cultural filters, is actively involved up for us as "reality" is inseparable from our in the construction of these maps. So, where is language and actions? What if we are part of the territory underlying the maps? not apart from the world? What if our crisis is, As philosopher Hubert Dreyfus says, "It at least in part, a crisis of perception and mean- is interpretation all the way down." The issue ing, springing from a "naive realist" perspec- is deeper than recognizing that the map is not tive of the observer as one who describes an ex- the territory. We have to face the possibility ternal reality? What if observation itself is the that we have no access beyond our culture to beginning of the fragmentation? such a thing as a territory. We only have pro- The puzzle of the "ultimate ground" for visional maps permanently open to revision knowing has confronted philosophers for a and recreation. long time. There is a story of the humble This may sound nihilistic. If there is no ul- novice who asks the great sage what it is that timate ground for values, why choose one keeps the world from failing through space. system over another? Why is democracy bet- The sage responds that the earth stays aloft ter than totalitarianism? Why is anything bet- because it rests on a great turtle. But, the stu- ter than anything else? Why even bother to dent asks, "What is it that holds the turtle care? The solution to the nihilistic dilemma up?" "Why," responds the teacher, "it is becomes from a self-reflective principle: Those cause the turtle rests upon another great tur- contexts that display their precarious nature, tle." "But," cries out the student, "that turtle those contexts that invite revision and recre- too must be supported." "Yes, indeed," re- ation are inherently better than those which sponds the master, "it is turtles all the way hide their precarious nature and fight revi- down." sionist attempts. The best constructs for ex- The alternative to naive "realism" is not plaining and organizing the world will imi- solipsism, a view that there is "nothing out tate life itself. They will be in a continual state there," and therefore nothing to be learned, of becoming. nothing to be valued. The alternative, we pro- When we fail to recognize this principle, pose, is recognizing the generative role of the we lose the capacity to understand others. traditions of observation and meaning shared We become rigid. We lose the ability to learn. by a community. We invent structures and We lose the child within us who lives in awe distinctions to organize the otherwise unman- and who understands what Einstein meant ageable flow of life. That organization allows when he said that the most beautiful experi- us to operate effectively, but it can become a ence in the world is "the experience of the tranquilizing barrier to exploration and cre- mysterious." ativity. The more efficient a model of the world turns out to be, the more it recedes into the background and becomes transparent. The more successful the model's strategies, the OPERATING PRINCIPLES more the map of reality becomes "reality" it- As we endeavor to embody these theses in our self. The danger of success is that the thinking work at the MIT Learning Center, several op- behind it can become entrenched and disre- erating principles are emerging. These "prin- gard the necessary context of its effectiveness. ciples" are neither rigid nor all encompassing. When a model loses its "situation" and gener- In effect, each grows out of a question, and in alizes its validity to universal categories, it many ways the questions themselves may be 15 the keys to moving forward—questions such What, then, are the types of changes we as, "What do we mean when we speak of a are seeking to encourage through pursuing teaming organimtionT the "learning organization" vision?

There is No Such Thing as a The Learning Organization "Learning Organization" Embodies New Capabilities Beyond Traditional Organizations Along with "total quality management" and "process reengineering," "organizational learn- We believe a learning organization must be ing" has become the latest buzzword. Just as grounded in three foundations (1) a culture there is no such thing as a "smart kid," howev- based on transcendent human values of love, er, there is no such thing as a "learning organi- wonder, humility, and compassion; (2) a set of zation." "Learning organization" is a category practices for generative conversation and co- that we CTeatei n language. Like every linguis- ordinated action; and (3) a capacity to see and tic creation, this category is a double-edged work with the flow of life as a system. sword that can be empowering or tranquiliz- In learning organizations, cultural norms ing. The difference lies in whether we see lan- defy our business tradition. Acceptance of the guage as a set of labels that describe a preexist- other as a legitimate being—a Thou—(our ing reality, or as a medium in which we can meaning of love), replaces the traditional will articulate new models for living together. to homogeneity. The ever-surprising mani- When we speak of a "learning organiza- festations of the world show up as opportu- tion/' we are not describing an external phe- nities to grow, as opposed to a frustrating nomenon or labeling an independent reality. breakdowns for which somebody must take We are articulating a view that involves us— the blame (wonder). People understand that the observers—as much as the observed in a life is not condensable, that any model is an common system. We are taking a stand for a operational simplification always ready for vision, for creating a type of organizafion we improvement (humility). And when they en- would truly like to work within and which counter behaviors that they neither under- can thrive in a world of increasing interde- stand nor condone, people are able to appre- pendency and change. ciate that such actions arise from viewpoints it is not what the vision is, but what the and forces that are, in some sense, as valid as vision does that matters, in the early 1970s, the viewpoints and forces that influence their Alan Kay led the researchers at Xerox PARC own behaviors (compassion). who developed the first true precursors to the Learning organizations are spaces for personal computer. In fact, Kay and his col- generative conversations and concerted ac- leagues were pursuing a different vision— tion. In them, language functions as a device they wanted to create the "dynabook," a fully for connection, invention, and coordination. interactive learning tool which would be as People can talk from their hearts and connect portable as a book. Unfortunately, they failed. with one another in the spirit of dialogue The prototype they built was too large and (from the Greek dia + logos—moving through). was never produced in volume. It embodied, Their dialogue weaves a common ongoing however, numerous component technolo- fabric and connects them at a deep level of be- gies, such as the "mouse" and an "iconic" in- ing. When people talk and listen to each oth- terface that we all now know as the "Macin- er this way, they create a field of alignment tosh" interface^which eventually gave birth that produces tremendous power to invent to the personal computer industry. That the new realities in conversation, and to bring Xerox researchers failed to produce the "dyn- about these new realifies in action. abook" is now an obscure footnote in history, In learning organizations, people are al- for the dynabook vision became, as Kay ways inquiring into the systemic consequences would say, "a forcing function for change." of their actions, rather than just focusing on lo- 16 EXHIBIT 1 SHIFTING THE BURDEN

One of the reasons the myth of the great leader is so appealing is that it absolves us of re- sponsibility for developing leadership capabilities more broadly. Viewed systemically, there is a "shifting the burden" structure: a perceived "need for leadership" (a problem symptom) can be met through developing leadership capacities throughout the group or organization (the "fundamental solution") or through relying on the hero leader (the symptomatic solution). Success in finding a hero leader reinforces a belief in the group's own powerlessness (the shifting the burden "side effect"), thus making the fundamental solution more difficult. The diagram is as follows: FIND ^^ HERO LEADER \

PERCEIVED NEEJD FOR LEADERSHIP BELIEF IN POWERLESSNESS

DEVELOP LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES THROUGHOUT ORGANIZATION cal consequences. They can understand the in- Learning Organizations Are Built terdependencies underlying complex issues by Communities of Servant Leaders and act with perceptiveness and leverage. They are patient in seeking deeper under- Leadership takes on important new meanings standing rather than striking out to "fix" prob- in learning organizations. In essence, the lem symptoms—because they know that most leaders are those building the new organiza- fixes are temporary at best, and often result in tion and its capabilities. They are the ones more severe problems in the future. "walking ahead," regardless of their manage- As a result of these capabilities, learning ment position or hierarchical authority. Such organizations are both more generative and leadership is inevitably collective. more adaptive than traditional organiza- Our conventional notions of leadership tions. Because of their commitment, open- are embedded in myths of heroes—great in- ness, and ability to deal with complexity, dividuals severed from their community who people find security not in stability but in make their way through individual will, de- the dynamic equilibrium between holding termination, and cleverness. While there may on and letting go—holding on and letting be much to admire in such persons, we be- go of beliefs, assumptions, and certainties. lieve that our attachment to individualistic What they know takes a second place to notions of leadership may actually block the what they can learn, and simplistic answers emergence of the leadership of teams, and ul- are always less important than penetrating timately, organizations and societies that can questions. lead themselves (see Exhibit 1). While we wait Developing such organizational capabil- for the great leader who will save the day, we ities will obviously require vision, patience, surrender the confidence and power needed and courage. What is the nature of the lead- to make progress toward learning organiza- ership that will be required to move for- tions. ward? As the myth of the hero leader fades, a

17 new myth of teams and communities that can who is both competent and who soldiers be- lead themselves is emerging. In 1983, success- lieve is committed to their well-being. ful grassroots community organizers from As such leadership communities begin to around the world gathered for a unique meet- grow, how will learning begin to be integrat- ing in the United States. This group of ed into work? "Gandhis of the world" produced a beautiful articulation of this new leadership myth: Learning Arises Through Performance and Our times are increasingly character- Practice ized by the awakening of the human force all over the planet, expressing it- It was common in native American cultures to self in popular movements, grassroots set aside sacred spaces for learning. So too in communities, and local organizations. our organizations today, learning is too im- This world force is a new kind of lead- portant to leave to chance. It will not be ade- ership capable of synthesizing the ex- quate to offer training and hope that people pressions of groups and organizing for will be able to apply new insights and meth- action. Leadership from and of the ods. Nor will help from consultants be suffi- group—and from the least among us— cient to bring about the fundamental shifts in is the hope for change in our time. thinking and interacting and the new capabilities needed to sustain those shifts. It will be The emergence of collective leadership necessary to redesign work if the types of does not means that there are no "leadership ideas developed above are to find their way positions" like CEO or general or president in into the mainstream of management practice. learning organizations. Management hierar- We believe that a guiding idea for re- chies are often functional. But the clash of col- designing work will be virtual learning lective leadership and hierarchical leadership spaces, or what have come to be known at the nonetheless poses a core dilemma for learn- Learning Center as "managerial practice ing organizations. This dilemma cannot be fields." The learning that occurs in sports reconciled given traditional notions of hierar- teams and the performing arts is embedded chical leaders as the people "in control" or "in in continuous movement between a practice charge." For this, then, implies that those "be- field and a performance field. It is impossible low" are not in control. A hierarchical value to imagine a chamber music ensemble or a system then arises that, as Analog Devices theater troop learning without rehearsal, just CEO Ray Stata puts it, "holds the person as it is impossible to imagine a championship higher up the hierarchy as somehow a more basketball team that never practices. Yet, that important being." is exactly what happens in most organiza- Alternatively, the dilemma can become a tions. People only perform. They rarely get to source of energy and imagination through practice, especially together. the idea of "servant leadership," people who Several design principles come together lead because they chose to serve, both to serve in creating effective managerial practice one another and to serve a higher purpose. fields: (1) The learner learns what the learner Servant leadership offers a unique mix of wants to learn, so focus on key managerial is- idealism and pragmatism. At one level, the sues. (2) The people who need to learn are the concept is an ideal, appealing to deeply held people who have the power to take action, so beliefs in the dignity and self-worth of all peo- focus on key operational managers as op- ple and the democratic principle that a lead- posed to staff. (3) Learning often occurs best er's power flows from those led. But it is also through "pl^y," through interactions in a highly practical. It has been proven again and transitional medium where it is safe to exper- again in military campaigns that the only iment and reflect. (4) Learning often requires leader whom soldiers will reliably follow altering the flow of time: slow down the ac- when their lives are on the Une is the leader tion to enable reflection on tacit assumptions 18 and counterproductive ways of interacting; than blaming the "culture" or "management," or, at other times, speed up time to reveal the members of the group explored their own how current decisions can create unanticipat- reactions to hearing about problems, especial- ed problems in the long term. (5) Learning of- ly from subordinates. They began to surface ten requires "compressing space," as well as their fears about mistakes and their automat- time, so that the learner can see the effects of ic reactions and defensive responses, like his or her actions in other parts of a larger sys- heightened competitiveness or a tendency to tem. (Computer simulation and related tools cover up the problems. Gradually, they may be needed for principles 4 and 5.) (6) This reached some deep insight into their "culture transitional medium must look like the action of punishment" and their own role in sus- domain of the learners. (7) The learning space taining it. must be seamlessly integrated into the work If indeed it is possible to progress toward space for an ongoing cycle of reflection, ex- learning organizations, what are some of the perimentation, and action. reasons we might resist such changes? If learning becomes n:iore integrated into how we work, where does "work" end and Learning is Dangerous "learning" begin? Learning occurs between a fear and a need. On the one hand, we feel the need to change Process and Content Are Inseparable if we are to accomplish our goals. On the oth- Because our culture is so caught up in separa- er hand, we feel the anxiety of facing the un- tion, we have been led, according to David known and unfamiliar. To learn significant Bohm, "to seek some fantasy of action...that things, we must suspend some basic notions would end the fragmentation in the content about our worlds and our selves. That is one (of our thought) while leaving the fragmenta- of the most frightening propositions for the tion in the actual process of thinking un- ego. touched." So, for example, executives seek to The conventional notion of learning is improve fragmented policies and strategies transactional. There is a learner who has a cer- without addressing the fragmented and com- tain way of operating and a certain knowl- petitive relationships among the managers edge. If this knowledge proves to be incom- who formulated the strategies and policies. plete or ineffective, the learner has the ability Consultants propose new process-oriented to drop part of it, change some of it, or add organizational designs without addressing some new ideas to it. This may be an accurate the modes of thinking and interacting that description of how we learn to find better cause us to focus on things rather than pro- bargains or make better investments, but it cesses in the first place. Management educa- fails to get to the heart of the type of learning tors treat either "technical" issues like opera- involved when we are questioning deep be- tions, marketing, or finance, or behavioral liefs and mental models. issues like organization culture, decision mak- The problem with this view is that the self ing, or change. is not separate from the ideas and assump- In our normal ways of looking at things, tions that form it. Our mental models are not the content or issues we are interested in are like pieces of clothing that we can put on or separate from the processes we might use to take off. They are basic constitutive structures learn about them. Yet, this very separation of our personality. For all intents and purpos- may be the primary obstacle to potential es, most of the time, we are our mental models. breakthroughs in situations where content The learning required in becoming a and process are inseparable. For example, ear- learning organization is "transformational ly in one of our Learning Center field projects, learning." Static notions of who we are must the team began to address the company cul- be checked at the door. In transformational ture of punishment for bad news. But, rather learning, there are no problems "out there" to 19 be solved independent of how we think and liaison officers reflected on how they became act in articulating these problems. Such learn- involved in systemic thinking and organiza- ing is not ultimately about tools and tech- tional learning, we discovered that there were niques. It is about who we are. We often pre- aspects of each person's background that fer to fail again and again rather than let go of made that person predisposed. In some cases, some core belief or master assessment. it was academic training. In others, particular This explains the paradox of learning. work or life experiences. In all cases, they Even when we claim we want to learn, we were deeply drawn to the "systems perspec- normally mean that we want to acquire some tive." They needed no convincing that much new tool or understanding. When we see that problem solving in organizations leaves deep- to learn, we must be willing to look foolish, to er sources of problems untouched, and that let another teach us, learning doesn't always the roots of these difficulties lie in how we look so good anymore. think and how we interact. They were skepti- It is little coincidence that virtually all cal of conventional strategies for organiza- spiritual disciplines, regardless of culture or tional improvement—reorganizations, train- religious setting, are practiced in communi- ing, management programs, speeches from ties. Only with the support, insight, and fel- "on high." Predisposifion is important, espe- lowship of a community can we face the dan- cially in the early stages of building momen- gers of learning meaningful things. tum when there are few practical results to point to. Those not predisposed to systems thinking should not be excluded, but they may THEORY IN PRACTICE: play less important roles at the outset. Over THE WORK OF THE time, many people who are initially confused, ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING threatened, or nonresponsive to systems CENTER thinking and learning often become the most The "liaison officers" of the MIT Learning enthusiastic supporters. If they are not in- Center are individuals from each participat- cluded, because they raise difficult questions ing company who work together to reflect on or disagree with certain ideas, what starts as a what we are learning and to translate these learning community can degenerate into a reflections into improved management prac- cult. tices for the center. It was in this group that we firstbega n to realize that building learning organizations was grounded in developing Community-Building Activities leadership communities. A core question has How those predisposed begin to know each occupied us throughout this year: "How do other and to work together involves an ongo- such communities form, grow, and become ing cycle of community-building activities influential in moving large organizations for- and practical experimentation. The former ward?" must be intense enough and open-ended Ford's Vic Leo has suggested a three- enough to foster trusting personal relation- stage "architecture of engagement:" (1) find- ships and to lay a foundation of knowledge ing those predisposed to this work, (2) core and skills. The latter must offer realistic start- community-building activities, and (3) practi- ing steps in applying new knowledge and cal experimentation and testing. skills to important issues. For example, at the Learning Center, a five-day introductory course explores the Predisposition tools, methods, and personal dimensions of It is easy to waste time attempting to bring the "Galilean Shift." There is practice with sys- about changes with people who do not want, tems thinking tools and dialogue, and with or are not ready for, such changes. When the reflecting on and articulating personal vi-

20 sions. Just as important, the course often re- the potential for significant improvement in sults in what the liaison officers called a business results. "piercing experience," where the systems per- Currently, two types of "practice field" spective begins to take on a deeper meaning projects are underway: dialogue projects and and the nature of the journey ahead becomes learning laboratory projects. Dialogue pro- clearer. jects focus directly on the deeper patterns of Moreover, it is a journey that we are all communication that underlie whatever issues taking together. There are no "teachers" with are being confronted by a management team. correct answers, only guides with different ar- Learning laboratory projects focus on eas of expertise and experience that may help specific areas such as new product develop- along the way. Each of us gives up our own ment, management accounting and control certainty and recognizes our interdependen- systems, and services management. Here are cy within the larger community of practition- some examples. ers. The honest, humble, and purposeful "I A team at Ford, responsible for creating don't know" grounds our vision for learning the next generation Lincoln Continental, is organizations. In this sense, the five-day in- also creating a New Car Development Learn- troductory course begins to forge the vessel ing Laboratory. The project has two interre- within which the learning center staff and the lated objecHves: to improve the effectiveness company managers begin to operate as a of the team in its current project and to de- community. velop better theory and tools that will lead to This vessel is reinforced and expanded broader systemic thinking in product devel- through a variety of other meetings and com- opment at Ford. munications media, including electronic mail, One of the most daunting tasks in car bulletin boards, and research documents. Es- product development is to balance autonomy pecially important are semiannual "systems of component engineering teams with opti- applications conferences," originally orga- mal design for the car as a whole. For exam- nized for reporting on projects underway in ple, many component teams, such as elec- participating organizations. These large gath- tronic fuel handling and climate control, place erings, which typically involve 100 to 150 demands on the car's electrical system. If ev- people, have become an ongoing dialogue ery component team optimizes its own ef- rather than a one-way reporting on various forts, the total load can exceed the capacity of projects. Remarkably, we are finding that the the alternator. Trying to convince each team more we organize around dialogue, and the separately that it should sacrifice accomplish- less we plan out elaborate agendas, the more es little; it may only raise fears that other com- we accomplish. {Note: For more information ponent teams will then be able to command on dialogue, see subsequent articles by more of the alternator capacity. William Isaacs and Edgar Schein in this issue.) This is actually an example of a general systems phenomenon called "tragedy of the commons." The term refers to situations in Practical Experimentation which there are common resources upon and Testing which all depend, like a commons for grazing Ulhmateiy, what nurtures the unfolding com- sheep. Individual incentives, such as one fam- munity most is serious, active experimenta- ily's efforts to increase the size of its flock, will tion where people wrestle with crucial strate- eventually destroy the commons for all. Using gic and operational issues. In our work at the system archetypes. Ford's team has been able center, we undertake learning projects in con- to conceptualize the particular interdepen- junction with groups of managers who have dencies involved in achieving an optimal total taken the five-day introductory course. Most vehicle electronic system. They also have projects focus on key issues, because of the re- identified other basic "commons" that recur in sulting motivation for learning and because of all car development efforts. They are develop- 21 ing a general approach that can lead to early fion of practice fields was far more radical that identification of commons and to establish- we originally believed. When people have a ment of specific management mechanisms to transitional medium where they can relate to assure that commons are not "overgrazed." each other safely and playfully, where they At the same time, the team is developing can openly explore the most difficult and a new car. Early returns show unprecedented "undiscussable" systemic issues, they begin to levels of internal coordination. For example, see their learning community as something at a recent checkpoint, the team had a level of precious. "People will misunderstand what "parts on time" twice the average. we are doing as problem solving," said one se- Another example of a learning project is nior manager recently, "when in fact we are Chrysler's use of system dynamics computer creating a new way of managing." simulation to introduce "activity-based costing" throughout the organization. The pro- CONCLUSION ject's goal is to create an experiential laboratory where the users of the new system can Building learning organizaHons is not an in- reflect on the shortcomings of current ac- dividual task. It demands a shift that goes all counting methods and the improvements of the way to the core of our culture. We have acfivity-based information. So far, Chrysler drifted into a culture that fragments our has used the laboratory in five new imple- thoughts, that detaches the world from the mentations, with all operations managers self and the self from its community. We have ranking an introductory session above 90 gained control of our environment but have (ranking goes from 1 for terrible to 100 for best lost our artistic edge. We are so focused on seminar ever attended). our security that we don't see the price we Our one-year program, the learning labo- pay: living in bureaucratic organizations ratories, and dialogue projects all spring from where the wonder and joy of learning have the Galilean shift; all follow the operating no place. Thus we are losing the spaces to principles articulated earlier in this paper. In dance with the ever-changing patterns of life. aU cases, what started as a "practice field" has We are losing ourselves as fields of dreams. led to penetrating insights into critical busi- We believe that to regain our balance we ness issues. The practice fields are gradually must create alternafive ways of working and becoming integrated into everyday company living together. We need to invent a new, activities. When we started the pilot projects, more learningful model for business, educa- we had a vision of transforming organizations tion, health care, government and family. through learning processes focused on signif- This invention will come from the paHent, icant business problems. We saw practice concerted efforts of communities of people in- fields as a place where teams could meet to re- voking aspiration and wonder. As these com- flect on structures, identify counterproductive munities manage to produce fundamental behaviors, experiment with alternative strate- changes, we will regain our memory—the gies, and design solutions for actual work set- memory of the community nature of the self tings. The core of the projects, in our minds, and of the poefic nature of language and the were "management flight simulators," com- world—the memory of the whole. puter simulations based on systems thinking. The simulators would enable managers to "compress Hme and space" so as to better understand the long-term consequences of their If you wish to make photocopies or decisions and to reflect on their assumptions. obtain reprints of this or other articles in ORGANIZAJIONAI. D^TVAMICS, The management flight simulators are please refer to the special reprint powerful tools that have shown their worth repeatedly, but the projects are yielding service instructions on page 80. something more. We are finding that the no- 22 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

There are many sources on learning organi- Mark Edwards (San Francisco; Harper, 1991), zations. Chris Argyris and Donald Schon, Orga- explores, in words and pictures, the role of frag- nizational Learning (Reading, MA: Addison-Wes- mentation underlying current social crises. ley, 1978), and Argyris Overcoming Organizational Connections between fragmentation in our re- Defenses (Needham, MA: Allyn-Bacon, 1990) are lations with the world and in our relationships good sources on the behavioral challenges of or- with ourselves are treated in J. Krishnamurti, ganizational learning. The link between plan- On the Nature of the Environment (San Francisco: ning and learning is developed in Donald Harper, 1991) and Martin Buber, / and Thou Michael, On learning to Plan and Planning to Learn (New York: Charles Scriber's sons, 1970). (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1973) and Arie de The role of language within a systems view Geus, "Planning and Learning," Harvard Business is addressed in Humbreto Maturana and Fran- Revieio, March/April, 1988; Peter Senge, The Fifth cisco Varela, The Tree of Knowledge (Boston: Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Or- Shambala, 1987); John Searle, The Re-discoz>ery of ganization (New York: Doubleday, 1990) pro- the Mind (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992); and vides a systemic perspective of the learning or- Monika M. Langer and Merleau-Ponty, Phe- ganization. For a systems view of management, nomenology of Perception (Tallahassee: Florida see R. Ackoff, Creating the Corporate Future (New State University Press, 1962). Richard Bandler York: John Wiley and Sons, 1981). A more gen- and John Grinder have studied how perceptual eral treatment of the systems paradigm can be maps diverge from the territories in The Struc- found in Fritjof Capra, The Turning Point: Science, ture of Magic (Palo Alto: Science and Behavior Society, and the Rising Culture (New York: Bantam Books, 1975). Further readings on the role lan- Books, 1983). Capra has also looked at the new guage in shaping reality are in George Lakoff, perspective on reality required by the quantum Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things (1987), Lud- and relativistic physics in The Taoof Physics (New wig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations York: Bantam Books, 1976); Margaret Wheatley, (New York: Macmillan, 1953), M. Heidegger, Po- leadership and the Nezo Science (San Francisco: etry, Language, Thought (New York: Harper and Berret-Koehler, 1992) has taken this perspective Row, 1971) and Terry Winograd and Fernando and applied it to management and business or- Flores Understanding Computers and Cognition ganizations. (Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex, 1986). Our views on fragmentation and the pri- The evolufion of Western culture away macy of the whole have been influenced by from wholism and toward fragmentation is many individuals. David Bohm has addressed treated in many places. For example, we have the issue from the perspective of quantum the- drawn on Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth ory and human perception, and has proposed a (New York: Anchor-Doubleday, 1988); Thomas general model of reality based on the continu- Merton's essay, "The Sacred City," in Preview of ous unfolding of the "implicate order." This is the Asian journey (New York: Crossroads, 1991); challenging work and, for most of us, is worth Raine Ejsler, The Chalice and the Blade (Harper approaching gradually and on different levels. San Francisco, 1987); and Elaine Pagels, The Bohm's Wholeness and the Implicate Order (Lon- Gnostic Gospels (New York: Vintage Books, 1989). don: Ark Paperbacks, 1983) provides the most "Shifting the Burden," "Tragedy of the Com- complete treatment of Bohm's model. His small mons," and other system archetypes are pre- pamphlet on Dialogue (Ojai Insfitute, Ojai, Cal- sented in The Fifth Discipline and are developed ifornia 1989) treats fragmentation and thought, further in The Systems Thinker newsletter (Cam- and Changing Consciousness, co-authored with bridge Mass., Pegasus Communications).