‘Teamness’ goes to pot
In the previous four articles, I have written about the first six organizational learning disabilities. The seventh and the last one is ‘The myth of the management team’.
The Human systems are inherently complex and changing at various rates of acceleration at different times either due to nature or human intervention. The key responsibility of management teams is developing collective strategy to deal this complexity and change so that the organization can grow and thrive.
“Chris Argyris, the father of Organizational Learning writes: “Most management teams break down under pressure. The team may function quite well with routine issues. But when they confront complex issues that may be embarrassing or threatening, the ‘teamness’ seems to go to pot”. Argyris further argues that most managers find collective inquiry inherently threatening. The consequence is what Argyris calls “skilled incompetence”-teams full of people who are incredibly proficient at keeping themselves from learning.” — From ‘The Fifth Discipline, Peter M. Senge’
Let us look at these two words: (1) Collective and (2) Inquiry.; and why one may find them threatening.
‘Collective’ is about aligning to a common goal or a shared vision or an agreed strategy; acting as ‘one’ for the growth and development of the organization. However, people are engaged with their own needs, career, ego, position, status etc. Mostly disagreements are expressed as blame, or as polarized opinions. With self-interest being high on priority, people fight for their turf, so there is no ‘collectiveness or oneness’.
Inquiry is possible only when someone accepts, ‘I do not know the answer’. But our schools, colleges and corporations have rewarded people who know the answer and publicly advocate their opinions / solutions. ‘Not knowing’ is celebrated in very few cultures. Further, ‘listening from not knowing’ is perceived as a weakness. So we avoid engaging in collective inquiry due to fear of exposure of vulnerability in front of the authority figures and our equals.
This culture of ‘skilled incompetence’ percolates from the top to bottom in many of our work organizations. Hence organizations become many ‘islands’ focusing on local optima, and not on the global optima (Organizational vision and purpose). Thus ‘Teamness’ becomes a myth not just at the top, but across the organization. This blocks any organization to learn. I guess that you would have experienced in most of the organizations you have been part of.
If you have stories of ‘collective inquiry’ by management teams that you have been part of or have seen them — please do share the stories and how they built the ‘teamness’.
This series on organizational learning disabilities comes to an end with this article. Do hope that these articles helped triggering reflections in you.
With inputs from Deepa Ram Bhat
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
