1.3
Individual Transformation and Organizational Transformation
The third step in creating conditions conducive to learning
is to focus on individual transformation. While clear boundary
conditions and an empowered environment are extremely important,
individual transformation is the key to organizational transformation.
This means cultivating the context for individual creativity,
therefore allowing innovation to occur.
The more firmly we establish the first two steps, the more
possibilities emerge in this third step. The more people know
and value the structure, the more they expand to fill it.
The more nurturing and empowering the culture is, the more
people want to go beyond it. This going beyond, breaking the
mold does not occur collectively at first. It begins with
an individual transformation.
We already know that creativity has something to do with breaking
the mold, stretching the limits, challenging the conventional
wisdom; it's something we call 'thinking outside of the box'.
This involves the stages of 'unlearning' and 'openness' described
earlier. For most of us this is a courageous act. It involves
the risk of 'bridging the gap' between uncertainty and untested
creation. In order for us to more easily take risks as individuals
we need the support from our environment.
This involves both the group's leader and the group itself.
In order to get in touch with their inner genius, leaders
sometimes require personalized coaching and to have their
ways of thinking and nurturing stretched. This can be done
through forcing them to expand their cognitive maps and by
appreciating and acknowledging who they are to us. Leaders
generally think of themselves in a rigid, limited, and mostly
distorted way. It is not until we, the other group members,
have bridged the gap between who the individual leaders think
they are and who they are to us that they can reach their
full potential. The more genuine and authentic we are in noticing
them and identifying their unique contributions and characteristics,
the better they will lead and teach us.
A key principle and practice for creating an environment conducive
to bridging the gap between the individual and the group is
that of acknowledgment and appreciation. In each Boeing 777
project review meeting, not only are current team members
present, but guests, old team members, and customers are there
as well. Mullaly greets each and every one of them by their
first name, acknowledges their contribution to the project,
and makes it obvious that he appreciates their visit. He asks
them individually for their feedback on the meeting and the
project. Many individual letters get read aloud by him as
well as put on the overhead-projector and read by the whole
team. It was fun for me to watch the faces of people who were
personally acknowledged. It was as if they grew an inch instantly.
Such instances of euphoria are the time for transformation.
Once people see how they are perceived and appreciated by
others, they begin to make changes to themselves accordingly.
They attempt to bridge that gap between who they think they
are and who others think they are. Their inner genius begins
to emerge.
Authenticity is extraordinarily important in acknowledgment
and appreciation. If the person thinks that we are faking
such things, there could be a significant loss of trust and
respect not only for us, but also for any other person attempting
to acknowledge or appreciate. Faking is dangerous. Angeles
Arrien, a cross cultural anthropologist, once said that each
person is a leader, and effective leaders are the ones who
know how to acknowledge others and what she says is:
People in the world over consistently acknowledge each other
in four ways: We acknowledge each other’s skills; each
other’s character qualities; each other’s appearance;
and the impact we make on each other. Wherever we receive
the least acknowledgment is where we may carry a belief of
inadequacy or low self-esteem (Arrien, 1993*)
The power of acknowledgment is such that it can cause a change
to occur in the other person. If that person is over acknowledged
in one area or merely desperate for any acknowledgment at
all in order to create a positive self-image, upon hearing
such comments they can start believing them in a fundamental
way. They can realign their self perception. Because of this,
they start to develop in that area; it becomes self-fulfilling.
In today's lean and mean organizations, every employee needs
to be an agent of change. This mastery of change, which brings
forth brilliant customer service, new product development,
and innovation comes through this personal transformation
step more than it does through mere ground rules or a supportive
environment. But the first two steps are the foundation upon
which this third step is built. Without them, personal transformation
is not sustainable.
1.4 Designing a New Game
The fourth step in preparing a learning environment is not
just to play a game but to design a new game, a game that
is much bigger than that with which we started. If we have
done well with the first three steps, we should have a large
number of leaders who are good in setting clear boundary conditions,
and know how to establish a powerful learning environment.
In addition, these leaders are themselves personally transformed
and are constantly coaching others to transform themselves.
It is like building a community of leaders, truly liberating
leadership. This is the place where generative learning and
new innovations of a high order take place as people are constantly
engaged with creating new knowledge. This is not about competing
with an external customer or being perfect. It is about truly
pushing the boundaries of human thinking and creativity. It
is about co-creativity, teamwork and collective generative
learning. It is also about contribution and integration of
leadership, empowerment, and creativity in one and the same
person and every person in the group. It is about synergy
and generation of new knowledge.
This fourth step is about learning to learn and is what brings
the focus back onto the first step. Once we experience paradigm
shifts and breakthroughs that lie hidden in the fourth step,
setting new ground rules is a natural consequence for the
bigger and new game that we design!
In essence, the fourth step is about integration. It is about
action--not just any kind of action, but action without attachment
to results. It is not about getting something for you; it's
about giving something to the larger community. That is the
context in which '1' and '1' could combine to produce '11.'
As you notice, '11' does not come from any addition, subtraction,
division, or multiplication from either '1.' This is what
happens within an organization that learns.
Communication and learning at all levels--(head (cognitive),
heart (emotional), gut (physical)--arises under such circumstances.
In such a place there is choice and freedom for individuals
and organizations to create, lead, and empower each other
while doing something larger than the sum of their individual
capabilities and capacities. That is the meaning of an organization
that learns.
Fig.
4. Organizations learn just like human beings––in
cycles. They have to have a body which happens to be the organizational
framework (skeleton) and the culture is the blood that flows
through the body. Individual transformation ignites the creativity
and innovation and generation of new knowledge gives birth
to new organizations (organisms). Then the cycles begins all
over again!
*Arrien, Angeles. 1993. The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths
of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary, San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco.
Author’s Bio: Prasad Kaipa, Ph. D. is the CEO Coach
and the CEO of SelfCorp, Inc, a web-assisted executive development
company. Prasad has developed algorithms that allow executives
to map the genetic code of the companies, so that they can
re-wire their companies for competitive performance. He is
well known for his original contributions in the areas of
learning, knowledge creation, executive development and innovation.
He has developed executive and strategy development programs
for Fortune 100 companies including Cisco, HP, Xerox, Sun
Microsystems, BAE Systems, Quaker Oats, Boeing, Ford, Pacbell,
and Bristol-Myers-Squibb for past 10 years. He worked in Apple
International Marketing and was a research fellow in Apple
University. He worked on designing a learning processor that
augments human intelligence when he left Apple in 1990. Athena
Interactive released three award winning CD-ROMs for leaders
based on his learning interface concepts and his tetrad methodology.