Does Success Breed Shared Vision LO13454

Howard Jacobs (hjacobs@mail.gte.net)
Sun, 4 May 1997 19:42:33 -0700

I am studying the implementation of a new program in an elementary school
using Senge's 5th Discipline as the conceptual framework. The adoption of
the program had some staff support but is very much a "top-down driven"
venture. The methodology is very different from anything that had
previously been tried at the school and the program is very scripted and
structured.

A recurring theme in the interviews I have conducted is that teachers feel
a great deal of frustration with much they are being asked/told to do.
However, they are willing to swallow that frustration and go along with it
because preliminary results are showing large gains in student
achievement.

The question in back of my mind is whether or not "positive results" are
enough to move the staff to something resembling shared vision and move
them from compliance to being enrolled or committed? The question is also
whether or not at some point "success" will not be enough and compliance
lead to defiance.

Any thoughts or suggestions for reading will be appreciated.

-- 

Howard Jacobs <hjacobs@mail.gte.net>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>