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Learning Disabilities - "i Am My Position"
By Graeme Nichol, MBA, Sat Dec 10th

As we progress through life we are required to learn new skillsto advance to the next level. Even when we enter the workingworld we are required to learn new skills. We stop growing andadvancing as soon as we believe we have learnt everything weneed to know. At that point we begin vegetating.

The same can be said for organizations. Every organization growswith enthusiasm up to a point and then it slows and even stops.An organization needs to learn to grow. When an organizationbelieves it knows everything it needs to know it will stopgrowing. The problem, in the case of an organization, is that itneeds to learn just to stay in one spot let alone advance.

Think about how computers have changed the face of business. Byrefusing to learn about computers a company today could not hopeto compete. Without computers there are very few companies thatcan survive and thrive.

In 1983 a Royal Dutch/Shell survey found that a third of thefirms in the Fortune 500 in 1970 had vanished. They were notjust smaller but they ceased to exist. The survey estimated thatthe average lifespan of a large industrial company is less thanforty years. Not long considering all the effort that goes intobuilding a company.

Peter Senge in his book "The Fifth Discipline" identifies 7learning disabilities found in organizations. Over the next 6eZines I will cover each of these disabilities. If you can seeany of these disabilities in your company then we really suggestyou put some effort into solving the problem. I addressed onedisability "The Myth of the Management Team" in a previousarticle.

The best way we have found to create a learning organization isthrough an amazing process simply called Best Year Yet.Everything that is needed in a transformation is addressedwithin the program.

Learning Disability 1 - "I am my position"

We are so loyal to our jobs that they have begun to define whowe are and how we think. Many people can't see themselves doinganything ...

{PS school - A school of thought is a collection or group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, cultural movement, or art movement. There have been several schools of economic thought throughout history. }

... else and when asked what they do for a living willrespond "I am an accountant" or the equivalent. They usually donot see the purpose of the organization they work for or howthey contribute to the whole. Most see themselves within anorganization over which they have little influence.

A job is seen as that, a job - defined by limits and tasks.Something which we try and cope with and do our time in,according to the job description. Jobs and functions do notoverlap. We do not see how our job has any impact on anotherfunction within the organization.

The problem with "I am my position" is that we see theorganization as a bunch of silos, none interacting with theothers. An accountant only does accountant work and a marketingmanager only does marketing work. The accountants are notconcerned with how their decisions impact any other positions orfunctions within the company. They make accounting decisionsbased on accounting impact and not organizational impact.

The other problem associated with this learning disability isthat people have little sense of responsibility for the resultsattained when the different silos interact. They only see theirresponsibility for their silo and no more. As a result whenproblems occur it can always be blamed on 'someone else'.Problems get lost and nothing is learnt from unexpected results.

A learning organization on the other hand ensures systemsthinking - the process of seeing the organization as a wholeinteracting organization. Where each decision is evaluated onhow it impacts the whole. Holistic management in Best Year Yetterms.

Do your people interact? Do they understand how their decisionsimpact the entire organization?

About the author:Graeme Nichol, Partner Best Year Yet (www.bestyearyet.com), hasmade things happen on 4 continents gaining experience throughBig Six consulting companies and boutique firms. Including;Business strategy, project management, change management,systems thinking, developing learning organizations, teamdevelopment, productivity and quality improvement, and largescale ERP implementations.

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