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BACK COVER

Throughout the Western world, people are yearning for a clarity of purpose and a sense of connectedness in their work lives. A quest for a different kind of workplace is emerging—one characterized by a stronger sense of purpose and a greater sense of progress. But what would a workplace that demonstrates these qualities look like?

In this concise collection, leading thinkers in the field of organizational learning address this timely question. Authors Peter Senge, Arie de Geus, Edgar Schein, Timothy Gallwey, and others share their insights about a vital transformation taking place in the world of work: the building of learning communities. The New Workplace explores key themes such as the purpose of business, new concepts in leadership, and the challenges of enhancing our ability to learn.

This powerful anthology offers the finest selection of lead articles drawn from recent volumes of THE SYSTEMS THINKER™ Newsletter. With its blend of rigorous concepts and practical suggestions, The New Workplace is an inspiring starting point for your own thinking about the workplace of the next millennium.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

From Fragmentation to Integration: Building Learning Communities by Peter Senge and Daniel H. Kim

Part 1 Rethinking the Purpose of Work
1. Is There More to Corporations Than Maximizing Profits? by Bryan Smith and Art Kleiner
2. The "Living" Company: Extending the Corporate Lifeline by Arie de Geus

Part 2 Creating New Concepts in Leadership
3. Transforming the Character of a Corporation by Bill O'Brien
4. Rethinking Leadership in the Learning Organization by Peter Senge

Part 3 Envisioning and Building Learning Communities
5. Can Learning Cultures Evolve? by Edgar H. Schein
6. The Inner Game of Work: Building Capability in the Workplace by Tim Gallwey
7. Creating a New Workplace: Making a Commitment to Community by Greg Zlevor
8. Building a Core Competence in Community by Kazimierz Gozdz
9. The Learning Organization Journey: Assessing and Valuing Progress by Nils Bohlin and Paul Brenner

EXCERPTS

Technical Rationality: One Root of Fragmentation

How did we reach this state of fragmentation? Over hundreds of years, we have developed a notion that knowledge is the province of the expert, the researcher, the academic. Often, the very term science is used to connote this kind of knowledge, as if the words that come out of the mouths of scientists are somehow inherently more truthful than everyone else's words.

Donald Schön has called this concept of knowledge "technical rationality." First you develop the theory, then you apply it. Or, first the experts come in and figure out what's wrong, and then you use their advice to fix the problem. Of course, although the advice may be brilliant, sometimes we just can't figure out how to implement it.

But maybe the problem isn't in the advice. Maybe it's in the basic assumption that this method is how learning or knowledge-creation actually works. Maybe the problem is really in this very way of thinking: that first you must get "the answer," then you must apply it.

The implicit notion of technical rationality often leads to conflict between executives and the front-line people in organizations. Executives often operate by the notion of technical rationality: In Western culture, being a boss means having all the answers. However, front-line people know much more than they can ever say about their jobs and about the organization. They actually have the capability to do something, not just talk about something. Technical rationality is great if all you ever have to do is talk.

Organizing for Learning

If we let go of this notion of technical rationality, we can then start asking more valuable questions, such as:
· How does real learning occur?
· How do new capabilities develop?
· How do learning communities that interconnect theory and practice, concept and capability, come into being?
· How do they sustain themselves and grow?
· What forces can destroy them, undermine them, or cause them to wither?

Clearly, we need a theory, method, and set of tools for organizing the learning efforts of groups of people. Real learning is often far more complex—and more interesting—than the theory of technical rationality suggests. We often develop significant new capabilities with only an incomplete idea of how we do what we do. As in skiing or learning to ride a bicycle, we "do it" before we really understand the actual concept. Similarly, practical know-how often precedes new principles and general methods in organizational learning. Yet, this pattern of learning can also be problematic.

For example, teams within a large institution can produce significant innovations, but this new knowledge often fails to spread. Modest improvements may spread quickly, but real breakthroughs are difficult to diffuse. Brilliant innovations won't spread if there is no way for them to spread; in other words, if there is no way for an organization to extract the general lessons from such innovations and develop new methods and tools for sharing those methods. The problem is that wide diffusion of learning requires the same commitment to research and capacity-building as it does to practical results. Yet few businesses foster such commitment. Put differently, organizational learning requires a community that enhances research, capacity-building, and practice.