When talking about the development of the department in a meeting with my colleagues, I would often laugh and say, "Your goal is to make me (the supervisor) not have to do anything." In fact, I am not joking. I really want to build a dream team that can adapt to different business environments, self-continuous learning, and self-continuous development. The learning organization advocated by Peter M. Senge, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, provides a complete framework for my goal. 

Peter's book "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization" is one of the most important works of modern management. It introduces five important elements for cultivating a learning organization. In a survey by the Financial Times in 2005, "The Fifth Discipline" was selected by business leaders as the most influential work in the past 20 years, ranking first on the list. 

As before, I will not explain the content of the book in detail. I will only give a brief introduction and personal opinions on these five exercises. If you are interested, you can read the original text. 

An organization is composed of many individuals. To grow independently, a group of individuals with the same ideas and abilities is needed. These individuals also need to influence each other and increase their value. The difficulty is increased exponentially. To cultivate a "soft" organization that knows how to grow, it is absolutely impossible to use "hard" rules, but it needs to be assisted by a suitable culture. Change every individual fundamentally, and then change the character of the organization. The practice can only start when the team has the proper culture. The five disciplines are: 

1. Personal Mastery

2. Mental Models

3. Shared Vision

4. Team Learning

5. Systems Thinking

Personal Mastery

It is easier to understand personal mastery for individuals, and it is the constant pursuit of a better state of mind. For the team to achieve it, first of all, each member must have the spirit of personal mastery. But the reality is not that everyone wants to achieve personal mastery, so the team must select members and train them under an appropriate culture.

Personal mastery of the team will not be as multifaceted as an individual, but in the ability of the team to achieve the vision. For example, the marketing team wants to develop a new market, and the vision is to achieve a certain percentage of market share. Normally, this goal cannot be achieved all at once. A learning team can find out the route of developing the market, and find out the issues that must be dealt with in the route, such as adjusting products to meet market needs, etc. In the end, the team can achieve the goal by continuously finding and solving issues. 

The book refers to these matters that must be dealt with as "structural conflicts", meaning the most basic contradictions and differences between reality and vision. A team's drive to resolve structural conflict is called "creative tension." As long as the team continues to have a creative approach to solving the core problem, it can gradually move towards the vision. The team will continue to grow while achieving the vision. 

This may seem simple, but it is not at all easy to achieve. Because the team may fail to perceive the real situation or may not be honest enough to face the reality. The structural conflicts found may not be real, leading to the wrong direction of development. 

Simply put, only individuals with personal mastery can create a team of personal mastery. For me, the difficulty of personal mastery is the second highest, because this is the most abstract concept. It is no longer a training of abilities, but almost establishing a value.

Simon So

Chief Experience Officer of Hantec Group