Senge: Chapter 9 Personal Mastery

PERSONAL MASTERY: Introduction The Spirit of the Learning Organization Mastery and Proficiency Why we want it Resistance The Discipline of Personal Mastery Holding creative Tension Prepared by James R. Burns

Introduction, Continued STRUCTURAL CONFLICT: THE POWER OF YOUR POWERLESSNESS Commitment to the Truth Using the Subconscious Personal Mastery and the Fifth Discipline Fostering Personal Mastery in the Organization Prepared by James R. Burns

Personal Mastery = Personal Growth & Learning People with high levels of PM are continually expanding their ability to create the results in life they truly seek. Prepared by James R. Burns

Mastery and Proficiency Goes beyond competence and skills First, we must continually clarify what is important to us. Second, we must learn how to see current reality more clearly. The gap between what we want and what our current reality is generates creative tension Prepared by James R. Burns

What its like to have lots of PM For such people, a vision is a calling rather than just a good idea PM is not something you possess, it is a process--a lifelong discipline People with lots of PM are more committed, they take more initiative Prepared by James R. Burns

Employers want PM for their employees because Full personal development has a strong impact on individual happiness Work should be seen as an opportunity to build something to last, something of value PM is a means toward the organization’s ends Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns Resistance Many individuals and organizations do resist PM No one will ever be able to measure how much PM contributes to productivity and the bottom line Cynicism: humanistic management over promised itself to firms in the 1970s Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns More Resistance Could it threaten the established order of a well-managed company? YES!! TO EMPOWER PEOPLE IN AN UNALIGNED ORGANIZATION CAN BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE Without this alignment, organizational stress will increase “People don’t resist change. They resist being changed..” Prepared by James R. Burns

The Discipline of Personal Mastery PM is a discipline, a series of principles and practices that continually expand PM Most adults have little sense of real vision Our personal vision must be positive An example of diminished vision is focusing on the means rather than the ends or results The ability to focus on ultimate intrinsic desires, not only on secondary goals, is a cornerstone of PM Prepared by James R. Burns

Holding creative Tension The gap between our vision and our current reality is called creative tension The principle of creative tension is central to the principle of PM, integrating all elements of the discipline Still creative tension often leads to anxiety, sadness, discouragement or worry. But these negative emotions are emotional tension and not creative tension Watch out for the eroding goals archetype Prepared by James R. Burns

“STRUCTURAL CONFLICT”: THE POWER OF YOUR POWERLESSNESS Many of us have a dominant belief that we are not able to fulfill our desires a by-product of growing up We believe in our powerlessness--our inability to bring into being all the things we really care about. Page 157 illustrates the conflict--out vision pulling us forward, while our belief in powerlessness pulls us back Prepared by James R. Burns

Eliminating self-limiting beliefs Many of us do not believe that we are worthy or deserving to have what we truly desire Manifestations are: loss of energy, not able to finish the job, unexpected obstacles develop, people let us down, we don’t believe we can do it Prepared by James R. Burns

Strategies for coping with self-limiting beliefs--Bro Ray Fritz Letting our vision erode Conflict Manipulation Will power Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns Focusing on what we don’t want: conflict manipulation (negative vision) The way many athletic coaches manipulate and motivate their players The way many managers point out the highly unpleasant consequences if the company’s goals are not achieved Do you really want to live your life in a state of fear of failure? For such people, there is little joy in life Prepared by James R. Burns

Third-strategy--WILL POWER We psych ourselves up to overpower all forms of resistance to achieving our goals We motivate ourselves through heightened volition This dogged determination gets things done at work, but doesn’t turn the trick at home Prepared by James R. Burns

The bottom line of Self-Limiting Beliefs (SLBs) They are hard to change--psychologists widely concur Prepared by James R. Burns

To change SLBs, we need a COMMITMENT TO THE TRUTH Tell yourself the truth Continually broadening our awareness Continually deepening our understanding of the structures underlying current events First, must recognize the structural conflict-- recognize the patterns Prepared by James R. Burns

Structures of which we are unaware hold us prisoner Discovering these structures at work is the stock-and-trade of people with high levels of PM Prepared by James R. Burns

Truth--seeing reality more and more as it is Pure observation--Buddhists Witnessing--Hindus “What a tragedy that many must die before he wakes up”--Koran “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”--Christianity Prepared by James R. Burns

Using the Subconscious; Or, You Don’t Really Need to Figure it all out People with high levels of PM can accomplish extraordinarily complex tasks with grace and ease The subconscious is intimately involved in PM: through it, all of us deal with complexity The aspect of our mind that is exceedingly capable of dealing with complexity is called the subconscious Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns Subconscious-- What distinguishes people with high levels of personal mastery is they have developed a higher level of rapport between their normal awareness and their subconscious Subconscious capacity is larger by a factor of 10 as compared to the conscious Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns The Core Values of PM Integrate reason and intuition See your connectedness to the world Be compassionate Be committed to the whole Prepared by James R. Burns

Fostering PM in an Organization You can’t force employees into PM--to do so is the most sure-fire way to impede the genuine spread of commitment to PM Leaders must foster a climate in with the principles of PM are practiced in daily life Prepared by James R. Burns

The Organizational Climate establishing visions, being committed to the truth, challenging the status quo Will reinforce the idea that PM is truly valued in the organization Will reinforce the idea that PM is a continual, ongoing process Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns The Climate, Continued Work to develop all five disciplines at the same time Leaders should be a model Prepared by James R. Burns

If you can’t picture it, you won’t make it You have to know where you are headed Choose your companions as if your life depended on it Leaders know when to put their foot down, and when to back down Prepared by James R. Burns

Copyright C 2000 by James R. Burns All rights reserved world-wide. CLEAR Project Steering Committee members have a right to use these slides in their presentations. However, they do not have the right to remove this copyright or to remove the “prepared by….” footnote that appears at the bottom of each slide. Prepared by James R. Burns