Replying to LO26724 --
Ruth,
Your description of the "problem" is evident in many organizations, not
just those who have thought about learning and increasing organizational
performance (what you called "helping new teams to acceleate their
productivity"). How do we increase the capacity and capabilities of team
members to learn and increase their effectiveness? Schein refers to
"learning anxiety" and over time I have come to observe that many team
members lack the basic skills of dealing with anxiety that comes with
doing new things. Not that they are not capable of giving, receiving
feedback, developing better process skills. . . use of candor and
accepting the feedback of others, so critical in self-awareness, is a
"skilled incompetence." And, self-awareness and the desire to engage in
learning more about self is an essential prerequisite to team-awareness
and learning about our teamwork.
I would focus on providing a learning experience that overcomes some of
the basic fears associated with personal awareness. The learning should
include increasing knowledge of the impact on others when there is a lack
of candor, and increasing the use of feedback as a critical dimension of
critique and lessons learned. For learning to occur from learning from
themselves and other teams, the shared mental model (shared vision) would
have to move from fear of disclosure to understanding its value as an
important dimension of learning.
On a meta level, if you want to see critique and lessons learned
reinforced as a value in the organization, then I'd also have to examine
evidences of reinforcement on a systems level. What happens in Verizon
when failures are acknowledged? Is speaking the truth rewarded by
listening and followup action? How do leaders acknowledge varying
pictures of their reality as offered by others lower in the organizational
hierarchy? If failures result in reprisals and staff movements, then all
of the skill building on the use of effective feedback on individual and
team levels will be of limited utility and the current issues you
describe, Ruth, will continue to be seen.
I'd be interested in learning how you work your challenges.
Sandy
Sandy Wells
Wells & Associates
512 327 8095
>We're not close to being a LO, but I'm interested in how you've mananged
>to move your organizations in that direction. Any books, articles,
>personal stories, etc would be most appreciated.
--"Sandy Wells" <sjwells@earthlink.net>
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