Personal Mastery: The First Discipline of Learning Organizations

In my last article I wrote about learning organizations and the five disciplines that, when fully integrated, will transform an organization into a learning organization. This article is dedicated to the first of those five disciplines, personal mastery. Personal mastery is the foundation on which organizational learning is built.

What is personal domain?

Personal mastery, as defined by Peter Senge, is “the discipline of personal growth and learning.” (the fifth discipline, p. 141.) It’s more than competence and skills or spiritual growth. It is about creating a desired future and moving towards it. People with high levels of personal mastery are adept at creating a personal vision and accurately assessing their current reality in relation to that vision. The gap between current reality and personal vision propels them forward. This gap is often called “creative tension.” Personal mastery is about generating and maintaining creative tension and living comfortably with that tension.

So how do you recognize people with a high level of personal mastery? Below is a list of the characteristics of those individuals:

• They have a special sense of purpose: a calling.
• They accurately assess their current reality; in particular, they are quick to recognize inaccurate assumptions.
• They are adept at using creative tension to inspire their forward progress.
• They see change as an opportunity.
• They are deeply curious.
• They place a high priority on personal connections without giving up their individuality.
• They are systems thinkers, that is, they see themselves as a part of a larger system.

These people are continually expanding their ability to create the desired future. In doing so, they create the potential for considerable development of organizational capacity, a potential that can only be realized through the integration of the five disciplines of organizational learning.

How do individuals develop personal mastery?

Developing personal mastery is a lifelong process, and it’s never too late to start. Much of what needs to happen has to do with changing the way we think about and view the world in which we live and work. Here are some things to try:

 

• Think systematically: When you encounter an unexpected or undesirable result, try to think about what processes allowed that result to happen, rather than looking for someone to blame. Thinking systemically consists of looking at the whole and the relationships between the individual parts. It’s also about looking for patterns over time, rather than taking a quick snapshot.
• Assess current reality: To be effective at assessing current reality, you need to be very aware of the assumptions you make about existing situations. Those assumptions shape, and sometimes cloud, our view of reality. Assessing current reality requires a great deal of reflection on your own thought processes and the ability to recognize your assumptions.
• Balancing promotion with research: Most of us are accused of entering into an argument with our well-established defenses. What this means is that we often don’t listen to what others are saying. Balancing advocacy with research, it takes us just as long to understand the views of others as it does to explain our own point of view. Those experts in the personal domain will gently probe until they fully understand a different point of view while inviting others to question their own perspectives and thought processes.
• Creating Shared Meaning: Creating shared meaning takes the previous point to the next level. It involves finding common ground within various perspectives and broadening the understanding of all involved. People with high levels of personal mastery understand that they only have one piece of the puzzle and only by inquiring into the points of view of others can those pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together and take shape into a clearer picture of current reality.

 

Each of the above techniques can take a lifetime to master. In fact, one never really “arrives”; There is always something new to learn. Therefore, it is important to start with small incremental steps. It doesn’t matter where you start, just start somewhere where you can feel progress and success.

How can organizations foster personal mastery?

Organizations must have people at all levels capable of personal mastery to become successful learning organizations. However, it is important to remember that it is a matter of choice. It cannot be dictated from above. Efforts to do so will only backfire, as employees are likely to develop a “personal view” that they believe the boss wants to hear.

The most important thing an organization can do to help employees develop personal mastery is to create an environment conducive to individual activities. Here are some ideas for doing so:

• Encourage inquiry and curiosity: In most organizations, people are rewarded for finding solutions, not for asking probing questions. The problem with this is that an organization will often go for the quick fix instead of taking the time to really understand the nature of the problem. Encourage employees to dig deeper into the nature of the problems, particularly recurring problems.
• Encourage employees to challenge the status quo: New employees are particularly good at doing this because they don’t have a history with the organization and aren’t yet assimilated into its culture. Take advantage of your new perspective and encourage veteran employees to do the same. The results will be contagious.
• Change your assumptions about what motivates your employees: Most organizations, whether they admit it or not, use external incentives (money, recognition, fear) to motivate their employees. Personal mastery is all about inner motivation, and given the right conditions, it will flourish. Create an environment that is consistent with the belief that most employees are motivated and want to do their best.
• Be a role model: It is important for organizational leaders to practice their own personal mastery. By setting an example, you will send the message that this is important.
• Commit to the long term: Personal mastery is not a one-time event or one-day workshop. It is also not a precise process. Do your best to be flexible to help employees develop personal mastery and realize that profits will increase over time.

By creating a safe and supportive environment where employees can develop their personal mastery, you are helping them build that creative tension that will propel them forward and ultimately make the organization a learning organization.

In my next article, I will focus on the second discipline of learning organizations, mental models.