Show report

Techlearn

Pick of the Keynotes: Peter Senge

I was never really convinced by Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline (1990). His emphasis on the 'spiritual foundation' of an organisation and his use of terms like 'sacred' to describe the relationship between an organisation and its employees always struck me as more than a little bogus. Indeed his recommendation that we scrap contracts of employment and replace then with non-binding covenants which 'reflect unity, grace and poise' is risible. However, as the man behind the concept of the 'learning organisation', he had some interesting insights to offer.

He was interviewed by Elliot Maisie over a satellite link.

Masie: What's your definition of a 'Learning organisation'?

Senge: An organisation that consistently enhances its capabilities to get the results they want to create.

Masie: Do we let learners develop on their own or do they need nurturing?

Senge: Learning is something that humans naturally gravitate towards but it is intrinsic motivation that matters and the nurturing of learning capabilities - i.e. the ability to reflect, see your own weaknesses, dependencies etc. Learning cannot be left to chance - it must be nurtured in an organisation.

Masie: Are there different cultures of learning?

Senge: Yes. In the US we wear our emotions on our sleeves. In Asia, face saving and avoiding embarrassment is paramount. But there's a difference between national and professional cultures. However, underlying all of this are common goals and at a deeper level aspirations, reflection, understanding and interdependence - these matter to everybody.

Masie: How do corporations suppress learning?

Senge: The two most common mechanisms are time and fear. TIME is not allocated and people are now under enormous pressure. Learning takes time. We need to breathe in and breathe out. You can't exhale all of the time. FEAR cramps the imagination, the fear of failure, fear of politics and power. The prevailing system of management is 'management by fear' and in tough times organisations suppress learning through fear. In fact, most business activity is collaborative which means getting rid of fear to improve performance. 'If don't hang out, we'll all hang together'.

Masie: What happens when a network gets wired, in terms of learning?

Senge: It's always useful to go back to a principle I first learnt from Alan Kat: 'Technology is neutral'. What matters with new technology matters more on us than the technology. The technology enables us to do things for better or ill: it does not change things in itself. Take angry emails - great technology, lousy use. No one is saying technology will solve all of our problems. The internet was fostered by scientists' needs for collaboration and the electronic has to give way to human face-to-face interaction at some point. (Note that this was a video-conferenced session from MIT!)

Masie: Is technology being parachuted into organisations?

Senge: The mindset is that technology will create change. In 'groupware' research has found that truly collaborative people use it really well, for example, in highly collaborative cultures; the others don't.

Masie: What's the student attitude towards technology at MIT?

Senge: It's love/hate. They use it a LOT but realise that context is all. They use the technology to solve problems. It doesn't stop learning, it helps.

Masie: How does Peter Senge learn?

Senge: Talking with friends, emails, reading, writing.

Masie: How cans senior executives learn to learn?

Senge: Learning is for all ages, however we may lose the passion to learn. We must encourage that passion.

Masie: If you had to take back one thing you wrote in The Fifth Discipline, what would it be?

Senge: I'd have less emphasis on organisational learning and more on social networks i.e. learning outside of the organisation. There's too many limitations put on the word learning and learning activities. People learn all of the time, and much of that time is outside of work.

Masie: What's your view on MIT's open courseware?

Senge: A good idea, information should ultimately be a public resource.

Masie: One final thought?

Senge: I'll end with an observation. Our commercial system is now wildly out of control, separate from people and nature. Those that ignore this will have a wild fame-out. We can't go on using up resources, ignoring stability and destroying what we've got. We're living in an age of disruption, and the traditional top-down structures may not be appropriate.

Next>>
Pick of the Keynotes
Eliot Masie
Steve Kerr
Dave Hopla