Personal mastery

When we talk about knowledge management (KM), we cannot ignore the concept of learning organization. Yes, organizational learning is complementary to KM.

This followed article was taken from “The Fifth Discipline –The art and practice of the learning organization”, a bestselling book written by Peter M. Senge (1990). To transform an organization into a learning organization, we have to integrate five main disciplines:  personal mastery, systems thinking, mental models, shared vision and team learning. Personal mastery is the foundation on which organizational learning is built. This article is devoted to the first discipline, personal mastery, also personal vision, that has fascinated me a lot. 

Personal mastery is the discipline of personal growth and learning. People with high levels of personal mastery are continually expanding their ability to create the results in life they truly seek. From their quest for continual learning comes the spirit of the learning organization. (p.141)

“Learning” in this context does not mean acquiring more information, but expanding the ability to produce the results we truly want in life. It is lifelong generative learning. And learning organizations are not possible unless they have people at every level who practice it. (p.142)

(In summary) people with high level of personal mastery are who :

• have a special sense of purpose that less behind their visions and goals. A vision is a calling rather than simply a good idea

• see current reality as an ally, not an enemy

• learned how to perceive and work with forces of change rather than resist

• deeply inquisitive, committed to continually seeing reality more and more accurately

• feel connected to others and to life itself

• sacrifice none of their uniqueness

• feel as if they are part of a larger creative process, which they can influence but cannot unilaterally control

• live in a continual learning mode. They never “arrive”

• accurately aware of their ignorance, their incompetence, their growth areas

• deeply self-confident

(p.142)

Full emotional development offers the greatest degree of leverage in attaining our full potential. (p.143)

Then we go to the first characteristic. People with high level of personal mastery have personal vision. What is personal vision? Here is Senge’s thought.

Personal vision

Personal vision comes from within. Several years ago I was talking with a young woman about her vision for the planet. She said many lovely things about peace and harmony, about living in balance with nature. As beautiful as these ideas were, she spoke about them unemotionally, as if these were things that she should want. I asked her if there was anything else. After a pause, she said, “I want to live on a green planet,” and started to cry. As far as I know, she never said this before. Yet, the image they conveyed clearly had deep meaning to her—perhaps even levels of meaning that she didn’t understand.

Most adults have little sense of real vision. We have goals and objectives, but these are not visions. When asked what they want, many adults will say what they want to get rid of. They’d like a better job—that is, they’d like to get rid of the boring job they have. They’d like to live in a better neighborhood, or not have to worry about crime, or about putting their kids through school.  They’d like it if their mother-in-law returned to her own house, or if their back stopped hurting. Such litanies of “negative visions” are sadly commonplace, even among very successful people. They are the by-product of a lifetime of fitting in, of coping, of problem solving. As a teenager in one of our programs once said, “We shouldn’t call them ‘grown ups’ we should call them ‘given ups’.”

A subtler form of diminished vision is “focusing on the means not the result.” Many senior executives, for example, choose “high market share” as part of their vision. But why? “Because I want our company to be profitable.”

Vision often gets confused with competition. You might say, “My vision is to beat the other team.” And indeed, competition can be a useful way of calibrating a vision, of setting scale. To beat the number-ten player at the tennis club is different from beating the number one. But to be number one of a mediocre lot may not fulfill my sense of purpose. Moreover, what is my vision after I reach number one?

Ultimately, vision is intrinsic not relative. It’s something you desire for its intrinsic value, not because of where it stands you relative to another. Relative visions may be appropriate in the interim, but they will rarely lead to greatness. Nor is there anything wrong with competition. Competition is one of the best structures yet invented by humankind to allow each of us to bring out the best in each other. But after the competition is over, after the vision has (or has not) been achieved, it is one’s sense of purpose that draws you further, that compels you to set a new vision. This, again, is why personal mastery must be a discipline. It is a process of continually focusing and refocusing on what one truly wants, on one’s visions.