Relationship between Management Principles and OL Disciplines

Introduction

Many types of management training offer principles, models, theories or concepts. For example : TQM, ReEnginneering, ISO 9000, etc. These are normally good ideas and they sound convincing or logical during the classroom training. However, most experience difficulties in application to their real life situation, that is for those who sincerely want to make happening arising from the new ideas. There can be many reasons why new happenings are not taking place. Whatever maybe the reasons, the true fact is that good ideas remain on the textbook or training manuals and skepticism abounds for any more new initiatives or management fads.

Organizational Learning

A relatively new management program, Organizational Learning emphases on a set of Disciplines, namely Systems Thinking, Personal Mastery, Shared Vision, Team Learning and Shared Vision. There are new concepts and theories behind these disciplines. Organizational members, who have been bombarded with so many management fads that never seem to work, naturally react with reservation and skepticism. They ask, legitimately so, "What is so different about this compared with previous fads?" "Is it another initiative on its own, when the previous ones have not been fully implemented with good results?" "Don't tell me this OL program compliments other initiatives. I have heard enough of such rationale before when new fad was introduced."

5 OL Disciplines

The 5 OL Disciplines, in my opinion, is not so much as to support or compliment the many initiatives or management principles, but the main emphasis is that they are to be used to operationalise whatever initiatives being undertaken by the organization. If it works out well, then 5 OL Disciplines will be seen as not only support or compliment but also reinforcement and holistic complection of the entire learning process

I will use an example of a typical organization trying to institutionalize a set of quality principles and shared values with the view of creating an appropriate organizational culture that can drive the business towards excellence.

Statements of Quality Principles :

• Quality is conformance to requirement, not goodness
• The System of Quality is Prevention, not appraisal
• The Standard of Quality is Zero Defect
• The Measurement of Quality is Price of Non Conformance
• The Responsibility for Quality is Proactive leadership at all levels

We shall discuss each of the above quality principle and demonstrate how the 5 OL disciplines could be used to make happenings the stated desires.

The principle attempts to remove subjectivity and replace with objectivity on the concept of quality. It calls for good specification of requirements (e.g. of customers, of work process to produce desired products or results etc.) to be followed or complied with. However, we also know that in facing with complex issues, there exist different understanding or perceptions of reality concerned. Thereby it is not so straightforward to specify requirements and communicate effectively such requirements to all stakeholders. Here the disciplines of [mental Models] , [Shared Vision] become paramount.

Again, it is a sound principle. As such, appropriate systems and processes need to be designed, communicated with necessary training and implemented. But it is also our common experience that well intended design of systems and processes somehow generate many other unintended negative consequences. The discipline on [Systems Thinking] will be a useful tool for regular review and necessary intervention of the designed systems and processes.

The higher the standards set, the greater is the need for effective collaboration and teamwork. To achieve zero fire incident in a manufacturing plant that produces flammable gas is not the task of a single person or a few, but all the stakeholders who have influence and control over the work processes that could result in fire. Having the [Shared Vision] of zero-fire incident, there is great demand for [Team Learning]

Measurement systems can be expensive and elaborate. Poorly designed or chosen parameters for further monitoring is not only wasteful, they may mislead the organization. When such parameters are converted into value or price, inappropriate conclusion or policies maybe made. There is need to probe deeply the underlying root causes to understand the leveraging domains for measurement of quality. It may call for disciplined usage of [Systems Thinking] and critical examination of the [Mental Models] involved.

Proactive leadership at all levels is a good concept - hierarchical manager likes it as it means all his or her subordinates take good initiatives, generating large amount of productive work on their own accord. Lower management members may like it as it provides opportunities for them to exercise their own intelligence and capability. However in real life, there are structural conflicts to such well intended principle. It is possible that the failure to achieve such goal arise not from lack of sincerity and commitment of the individuals, but from collectives structural forces (not well understood and comprehended by the concerned parties) contributed by all stakeholders. The discipline of [Systems Thinking] may help to identify the hidden collective structural forces. Furthermore, pro-active leadership also demand [Personal Mastery], whereby individual members with great sincerity need to gain mastery of their thinking and behavior and skills in collaboration.

The above little write up is a demonstration of how the 5 OL disciplines, together with many other supporting theories and models help us to examine every thought and action we are undertaking for necessary intervention for higher and more effective results.

OL Disciplines and Management Principles

If the many management initiatives, programs, fads .. are like many dishes of food at buffet party, OL disciplines are like the arts of selection of foods, the arts of eating, the arts of leveraging without overloading in the consumption of abundant food,... for the purpose of enjoying a really satisfying meal.