IS SYSTEMS THINKING A HOLLOW RITUAL?

The Leader’s New Work: Building Learning Organizations

Peter Senge

• Current Management System– Let the leadership do the thinking– Leadership by control– Leadership by force of rewards or will

• What is needed is a System which:– Depends on superior learning– Can think at all levels not just the highest

LEARNING CATEGORIES

• ADAPTIVE– Coping by responding to the environment

• GENERATIVE– Expanding our capability, it is about creating

not just coping.

GENERATIVE LEARNING

• Different ways of looking at known problems

• Grasping systemic source of problems not just symptoms

• Leaders responsible for everyone’s learning

• Leader creates tension between where you are and where you need to be.

NEW ROLES FOR LEADERS

• DESIGNER– Clarify visions, values

and purpose– design policies,

strategies and structures– Create learning

processes

• TEACHER– Help people gain insight

into current reality

• STEWARD– Serve first

• Create opportunities for people to contribute to organizational purpose

NEW SKILLS

• BUILDING SHARED VISIONS• SURFACING AND TESTING

MENTAL MODELS– Leaps of abstraction– balancing inquiry and

advocacy– Distinguishing theory from

application– Recognizing defensive

routines

• SYSTEMS THINKING– Seeing Relationships, moving

beyond blame, distinguishing types of complexity, focus on right areas, and avoiding symptomatic solutions

The Many Faces of the Corporate CodeLisa H. Newton

• A code must meet three specifications– Creation through participation– Must be consistent with general ethical

principles and dictates of conscience (respect for individual, commitment to justice, sensitive to rights of all affected) validity

– Must reflect the actions of senior managers and leaders. authentic

CODES FAIL WHEN

• They are created in a vacuum• Do not seem valid to those asked

follow them• Do not seem authentic

Managing for Organizational IntegrityLynn Sharp Paine

• CLEAR AND PRESENT NEED FOR CORPORATE CODE OF ETHICS– Business is perceived as incapable of ethical

conduct– Market requires efficiency not ethics– Board of Directors and top management

responsible for balancing conflicting demands

WHY CODES ARE VIEWED AS VIABLE

• Academic skepticism

• View as created by a power elite

• Subject to bias of senior officers

• Rules to not apply to those at the top

CREATION OF CODES THAT WORK

• PRINCIPLE OF PARTICIPATION– Developed through

maximum involvement• PRINCIPLE OF VALIDITY

– Must be consistent with accepted dictates of conscience

• PRINCIPLE OF AUTHENTICITY– Code must be followed

by senior management

MANAGING FOR ORGANIZATIONAL INTEGRITY

Lynn Sharp Paine

• COMPLIANCE BASED CODES OF ETHICS– Use legal compliance as the standard. This

mark is to low– Compliance overemphasizes the threat of

detection and punishment but does not foster moral discipline

Hallmarks of an Effective Integrity Strategy

• Guiding values make sense• Senior leaders are committed, credible

and willing to take action• Values are integrated into culture• Company systems and structures

reinforce values• Managers have the skills and ability to

make ethical daily decisions• Note Page 538 for difference in

compliance and integrity