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Leaders build organizations where people are continually expanding their capabilities to shape their futures.
WE ARE DESIGNED FOR learning. We come fully equipped with an insatiable drive to explore and experiment.
Unfortunately, the primary institutions of our society are oriented predominantly toward controlling rather than learning, rewarding individuals for performing for others rather than for cultivating their natural curiosity and impulse to learn. The young child entering school discovers quickly that the name of the game is getting the right answer and avoiding mistakes-a mandate no less compelling to the aspiring manager.
"Our prevailing system of management destroys people, " wrote W. Edwards Deming. "People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-esteem, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy in learning. The forces of destruction begin with toddlers-a prize for the best costume, grades, degrees, and gold stars. On the job, people, teams, and divisions are ranked-- reward for the one at the top, punishment at the bottom. Quotas, incentive pay, and separate business plans cause further loss."
Ironically, by focusing on performing for someone else's approval, corporations create the very conditions that predestine them to mediocre performance.
Over the long run, superior performance depends on superior learning. The need for understanding how organizations learn and accelerating that learning is greater today than ever before. It is simply no longer possible for anyone to "figure it all out at the top." The old model, "the top thinks and the local acts," must now give way to integrating thinking and acting at all levels. While the challenge is great, so is the payoff. "The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of the people in his or her organization," according to former Citibank CEO Walter Wriston, "is going to blow the competition away."
The Integrating Principle
Leadership in a learning organization starts with the principle of creative tension. Creative tension comes from seeing clearly where we want to be, our "vision," and telling the truth about where we are, our "current reality." The gap between the two generates a natural tension.
Creative tension can be resolved in two basic ways: by raising current reality toward the vision, or by lowering the vision toward current reality. Individuals, groups, and organizations who learn how to work with...