Peter Senge, THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE, Chapter 18 The Leader’s New Work Peter Senge, THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE, Chapter 18

Self-directed teams require a new leadership style The traditional style of clear directions and well-intentioned manipulation doesn’t work People with a sense of their own vision and commitment would naturally reject efforts of a leader to get them committed. One leader did not know what to do, now that he had a self-directed team 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns Our view of leaders…. Is wrong Especially in the West, leaders are heros--great men who rise to the occasion This view reinforces a focus on events and charismatic control of those events rather than on systemic forces and collective learning 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

Our view of leaders, continued At its heart, the traditional view of leadership is based on assumptions of people’s powerlessness, their lack of personal vision and inability to master the forces of change 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

The new view of leadership in learning organizations Leaders are designers, stewards, and teachers Leaders build organizations where people continually expand their capacity to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental models That is, leaders are responsible for creating a culture where learning is rewarded 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns Leader as Designer Suppose your org is an ocean liner and you are the leader. What is your role? The commonest answer, not surprisingly, is “the captain.” Other less common answers include the helmsman, the navigator, the social director (making sure everybody is involved, and communicating) 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

The neglected leadership role is … the designer of the ship. No one has a more sweeping influence than the designer. It does no good for the captain of the ship to say turn starboard 30 deg. when the designer only allowed for 15 deg. Yet NO ONE thinks of the designer when they think of the leader’s new role!! 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

Why did no one thing of the designer Lao-tzu: little credit goes to the designer The functions of design are rarely visible Consequences today are the result of work done long ago in the past Design work today will show its consequences long in the future 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

What must leaders design? Policies, strategies, “systems,” organizations, specifically Selection policies Vision strategies Value systems Culture systems Measurement systems Rewards systems Criteria by which excellence will be determined 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns And what of Design? It is an integrative initiative All of the parts must fit together and work well together as a whole under a variety of circumstances The leader must view the firm as a “system” -- Ray Strata Corporate executives must become organizational architects -- Ed Simon 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

Gives rise to a new discipline: Business Design Must loose focus on the P&L statement Look at the long term, instead Have to get away from piecemeal reactions to problems Have to integrate the five component technologies Must integrate vision, values, purpose, systems thinking, and mental models The synergy of the disciplines can propel an organization to major breakthroughs 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

First tasks of Business Design Design the governing ideas--purpose, vision, and core values Building shared vision is important because it fosters a longer-term orientation and an imperative for learning Get the systems thinking going early on Get the concept of mental models and surfacing underlying assumptions going early as well 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

Subsequent tasks of Business Design Design the learning processes Get personal mastery going 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns The Leader as Steward Leaders have a purpose story This is an overarching explanation of why they do what they do how their organizations need to evolve how that evolution is part of something larger Most gifted leaders have a “larger story” 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns The Leader as Teacher 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns Creative Tension 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

How can such Leaders be Developed 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns

Prepared by James R. Burns Time to Choose 2/19/00 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. 2/19/00 Prepared by James R. Burns Prepared by James R. Burns