Group items tagged

If organizations are to develop a capacity to work with mental models then it will be necessary for people to learn new skills and develop new orientations, and for their to be institutional changes that foster such change. ‘Entrenched mental models… thwart changes that could come from systems thinking’ (ibid.: 203). Moving the organization in the right direction entails working to transcend the sorts of internal politics and game playing that dominate traditional organizations. In other words it means fostering openness (Senge 1990: 273-286). It also involves seeking to distribute business responsibly far more widely while retaining coordination and control. Learning organizations are localized organizations (ibid.: 287-301).

it’s the capacity to hold a share picture of the future we seek to create’ (1990: 9). Such a vision has the power to be uplifting – and to encourage experimentation and innovation. Crucially, it is argued, it can also foster a sense of the long-term, something that is fundamental to the ‘fifth discipline’.

When there is a genuine vision (as opposed to the all-to-familiar ‘vision statement’), people excel and learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to. But many leaders have personal visions that never get translated into shared visions that galvanize an organization… What has been lacking is a discipline for translating vision into shared vision – not a ‘cookbook’ but a set of principles and guiding practices. The practice of shared vision involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitment and enrolment rather than compliance. In mastering this discipline, leaders learn the counter-productiveness of trying to dictate a vision, no matter how heartfelt. (Senge 1990: 9)

People need to be able to act together. When teams learn together, Peter Senge suggests, not only can there be good results for the organization, members will grow more rapidly than could have occurred otherwise.

In a learning organization, leaders are designers, stewards and teachers. They are responsible for building organizations were people continually expand their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental models – that is they are responsible for learning…. Learning organizations will remain a ‘good idea’… until people take a stand for building such organizations. Taking this stand is the first leadership act, the start of inspiring (literally ‘to breathe life into’) the vision of the learning organization. (Senge 1990: 340)

In essence, ‘the leaders’ task is designing the learning processes whereby people throughout the organization can deal productively with the critical issues they face, and develop their mastery in the learning disciplines’ (ibid.: 345).

One of the important things to grasp here is that stewardship involves a commitment to, and responsibility for the vision, but it does not mean that the leader owns it. It is not their possession. Leaders are stewards of the vision, their task is to manage it for the benefit of others (hence the subtitle of Block’s book – ‘Choosing service over self-interest’). Leaders learn to see their vision as part of something larger. Purpose stories evolve as they are being told, ‘in fact, they are as a result of being told’ (Senge 1990: 351). Leaders have to learn to listen to other people’s vision and to change their own where necessary. Telling the story in this way allows others to be involved and to help develop a vision that is both individual and shared.

By attending to purpose, leaders can cultivate an understanding of what the organization (and its members) are seeking to become. One of the issues here is that leaders often have strengths in one or two of the areas but are unable, for example, to develop systemic understanding. A key to success is being able to conceptualize insights so that they become public knowledge, ‘open to challenge and further improvement’ (ibid.: 356).

It is about fostering learning, for everyone. Such leaders help people throughout the organization develop systemic understandings. Accepting this responsibility is the antidote to one of the most common downfalls of otherwise gifted teachers – losing their commitment to the truth. (Senge 1990: 356)

Here’s a quick checklist to follow:

From there, publicize a target timeframe for the tech rollout, and be transparent about it. If there are setbacks, explain what happened and why. Keep employees engaged and up-to-date on what’s happening. Ultimately, this engagement will help you get to the finish line with your goals for this new technology solution. Because if people aren’t positively motivated, even the best new tools won’t be helpful.

Finally, it’s important to understand how long an implementation cycle can take. Because of the nature of today’s consumer-led technologies, this is often a process that can take more than a year or longer.

For example, you can have the right technology implemented poorly.

Or the wrong technology implemented correctly.

From your perspective, you’re bringing improvement—saving employees time, allowing them to be more flexible, improving productivity, improving sales and profits, etc. But from employees’ and departments’ point of view, you’re rocking the boat, telling them to change how they’ve always been doing things, give up precious tools, learn and carry around new devices and the like.

As soon as reasonably possible, try to “institutionalize” the new technology and “show employees that you are transitioning from the old way of working to the new one,”

part of the routine of the way the place works,”

“Rewarding the behavior you want to see is much more effective than penalizing the behavior you don’t want to see,” says Mankins. You’ll need to know “which employees are adopting the technology and which kind of rewards means the most to them.”

Win hearts and minds by emphasizing how the new technology benefits the organization and makes employees’ lives easier Encourage adoption by rewarding employees in ways that are most meaningful to them Build the new technology into the routines and rhythms of the workday as soon as possibl

Pick a technology that’s more complicated than it needs to be; for a swift adoption, select a system that’s approachable and intuitive Overlook the importance of getting your most influential employees on board early in the process; they will help you bring around others Leap to punish employees who don’t use the technology; penalties should be a last resort if incentives and rewards aren’t working

Potential users must be at least 13 to sign up

Keep a doc private Share it with a few people Make it public on the Web

Whether or not you seek outside help, however, educating your own technology team is crucial to a successful plan. In order to understand the options a consultant presents to you, you need vocabulary and basic concepts. The content areas of TechSoup are a good place to start.

If leaders want people to try new things, they have to openly show, that they are willing to do the same.

we have access to so much information, not only from schools, but from outside organizations.

The least innovative organizations often seem to surround themselves with like-minded people.

Spending time with people and building solid relationships with them often leads to them going miles beyond what is expected and move away from “what has always been done”.  When people know they are valued and safe in trying new things, they are more likely to do something better.  This is at the core of an innovative school.

should try to create new ideas, but it is more important that they create a culture of innovation

She and her mom were proud that she had done her own research. When she said that she got her information from Wikipedia, I suggested that she might wish to include her source on the project, but she did not want to. She did not know if she would be presenting the project to her classmates.

My concern was not just about the credibility of using Wikipedia for academic purposes. The reading level was too advanced for a typical third-grader. Researchers (Anderson, 2012) have found the overall readability of numerous Wikipedia articles too difficult for many readers.

How is the research process introduced to elementary students, particularly for using the internet? Are learners provided an age-appropriate online tutorial? Is there a standards document indicating skills that students should be developing in elementary grades for using technology to conduct research?  What guidelines/templates are students provided for developing their projects? Are they provided a checklist/rubric for how projects would be graded? Who sees their projects?  How do you make parents aware that their children will be doing internet research and that their children’s “online safety” has been considered?

elementary learners can hop on the Research Rocket at the online portal Kentucky Virtual Library: How to Do Research and find an interactive and engaging tutorial designed just for them. Content might also benefit classroom lessons and discussions, particularly in K–2 when

ibrary media specialists in the School District of New Berlin (WI) developed a series of research guides and templates, organized by grade-bands. Templates for grades 4 to 6 combine a checklist or rubric.  Lankau, Parrish, Quillin and Schilling (2004) developed the Research Project Guide: A Handbook for Teachers and Studentsfor Humble Independent School District in Texas.

Symbaloo, a social bookmarking tool, for this purpose. The Elementary Research Guide focuses on the Super 3 and Big 6 research models for grades K–2 and 3 to 5, respectively. Presentations on the Super 3 and Big 6 models, posted on Slideshare.net, illustrate that educators value both models.