Rose Wentz, in LO6575 hit the nail on the head (as did John Woods) on the
issue of teaching and learning about leading:
>In fact very few have even experienced true teamwork.>
I see this every time we deliver our simulation. Teams work together as
long as they are in close proximity to each other -- My Team, My Team, My
Team -- and compete / sabotage the others. So, we lose sight of The Big
Team. Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot losing sight of The World We Share.
>What I am struggling with is how to provide the type of
>leadership and learning experience within an organization that will
>encourage others to have a systems view and thereby will want to increase
>their leadership skills. >
Don't just do something, Stand There. We need to gain perspective from
dissociation, not just more associated experiences. That's wjy it is
easier to see what other organizations should be doing rather than our
own. (Or what other people should be doing rather than ourselves.
Phuoc-chau Nguyen's comment about only having a visa and not being a
permanent resident was most elegant.
We can strengthen leadership skills, if leaders recognize The Gap between
their desired behaviors and their actual ones, between their desired
results and their actual ones, between their actual goals and their
desired ones. But measurements alone won't do it. And they get isolated
from the realities of how things work.
Take the President and put him on the customer complaint / inquiry lines
for a day. Let him have to deal with the systems and software, the
incomplete data, the speed required to handle the volume. Things will
change.
Have him or her spend a few actual hours on the production line. Or on a
sales call where the customer is introduced to them as "one of the new
salespeople" and where they are not allowed to take over the contact or
make any promises. Things will change.
>Again my logical brain keeps telling me there must be concrete
>ways to encourage and support the strengthening of these
>skills as I am very doubtful that many people will get there alone.
>I do believe that whatever the answer is it probably does not look like
>tradition managment training.
YEP. And Yep. It must be experiential and it must be real. The
isolation in most organizations is too great. This too must change,
For the Fun of It!
--Scott Simmerman Performance Management Company, Taylors SC USA 29687-6624 74170.1061@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>