Under the Big Topic

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2010

"Knowledge":  a BIG Topic for Leaders

Let's start at the universal horizon: we've shifted to a "knowledge economy".

In Thunder Bay... we are landing feet first into that "global knowledge", especially through our state of the art research base.

As a community, we are slowly learning to become a "learning organization".

Our educational systems are strategically "breaking the cycle".

As leaders, we setting goals as "life long learners".

& so the cycle continues...as life long learners our ripple effect touches the global knowledge shift...pointing to our northern base...breaking more cycles...

"Knowledge is a BIG topic!"

On March 4 CLD, be prepared to ask our Mayor Lynn Peterson about her views about how our community is shifting. 

We have an hour to "just chat" about the state of affairs.

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Rocks and Sand

Stewart Kallio, LTB Vice Chair

A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, rocks about 2" in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.

The students laughed.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of Course, the sand filled up everything else.

"Now," said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this is your Life. The rocks are the important things - your family, your partner, your health, and your children - anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car.

The sand is everything else. The small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room

for the pebbles, and the rocks.

The same goes for your life.

If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Play with your children.

Take time to get Medical checkups.

Take your wife out dancing.

There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal."

"Take care of the rocks first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

Beach View

Margaret Wheatley:  Servant Leadership

http://www.margaretwheatley.com/articles/servantleader.html

There was a geologist being interviewed. He was a beach geologist, so his field of study was beaches and sand and the like. And at the time he was being interviewed, there was a storm. One of the large hurricanes was pounding the outer bank off the Carolinas. And he was being interviewed about what hurricanes do to beaches.

Now, we all know what hurricanes do to beaches and beach houses and such. We feel they're very destructive, right? They destroy homes and take down power lines and take away even sand, and whole beaches disappear in a hurricane.

So this interviewer was talking to this beach geologists about this hurricane going on. And then this is what got my attention.

The geologists said, "You know I can't wait to get out on those beaches again once these storms have passed.

And I hope to get out there in the next 24 hours."

And the interviewer said, "What do you expect to find out there?"

and I was listening, and I thought he was going

to talk about all the destruction

he was going to find.

What he said really surprised me. He said, "I expect to find a new beach."

Now wouldn't it be wonderful if we could be in the same relationship with life as that beach geologist, where we would look for newness rather than predictability, where we would look to see what just happened rather than agonize that what we wanted didn't happen?

Breaking the Cycle: "Finding New-ness"

Alumnus Stewart Kallio

The Canadian Council on Learning Report

@ http:www.ccl-cca/sal2009

highlights learning as a "lifelong holistic process"

for Canada's first nations people. 

Even more interesting is the artwork by Thunder Bay’s Roy Thomas. After Roy’s passing several years ago, his wife, Louise, felt strongly about honouring Roy and his work; as a result, she established the Anishnabae Art Gallery on James Street to continue promoting Roy’s work and his message. The gallery overlooks Mount Mckay, a most moving and spiritual place for the Anishnabae. Since opening she’s established quite a strong voice and artist's collective in the art world.

Now that you've read all this...

How about a freebie?

Post a comment about any of these "knowledge stories" to win Vancouver author Greg Gerrie's book "Fired Up For Life"

and I will deliver to you along with coffee/dessert of your choice. 

Comment @ http://www.xowhat.blogspot.com/

What Makes CAP Teams Tick?

iCopyright Carol Cooper, Compasswebworks

What Makes Teams Tick?

This month's key leadership skill is "Knowledge".   It's a pretty big topic - related to "information" as well as "wisdom" on the other end of the spectrum.  Teams who understand the importance of how information is shared, knowledge is captured and created and how wisdom plays into decision making, are well on their way to an exemplary existance.

Let me quote directly from Peter Senge about how teams tick.

Senge is the wise guy behind "learning organizations"

and "systems thinking". 

Full article and source here:  http://www.infed.org/thinkers/senge.htm

"When you ask people about what it is like being part of a great team, what is most striking is the meaningfulness of the experience.

People talk about being part of something larger than themselves, of being connected, of being generative.

It become quite clear that, for many, their experiences as part of truly great teams stand out as singular periods of life lived to the fullest.

Some spend the rest of their lives looking for ways to recapture that spirit. (Senge 1990: 13)

For Peter Senge, real learning gets to the heart of what it is to be human. We become able to re-create ourselves.

This applies to both individuals and organizations.

Thus, for a ‘learning organization it is not enough to survive. ‘

”Survival learning” or what is more often termed “adaptive learning” is important – indeed it is necessary.

But for a learning organization, “adaptive learning” must be joined by “generative learning”, learning that enhances our capacity to create’ (Senge 1990:14).

So, what does this mean for our CAP teams?

With the assessments of both your team functions and roles, and the "Community Asset Maps",  you are being introduced to "systems thinking".  This concept, in short, helps you to understand how

 a variety of parts - and their inter-relationships -  contribute to the whole.

Your CAP team is not just a project. 

It is a dynamic, living, breathing "organization"

with causes and effects inthe proecess of snowballing. 

This momentum can be positive or negative:

each of you are either contributing to its strength,

or increasing its challenges.

There is no "status quo".

Defining your CAP project as a "to do" assignment, is much different than understanding how your knowledge and wisdom are contributing to the host organization's "big picture" future.

Back to Peter Senge:

Peter Senge advocates the use of ‘systems maps’

– diagrams that show the key elements of systems and how they connect. However, people often have a problem ‘seeing’ systems,

and it takes work to acquire the basic building blocks of systems theory, and to apply them to your organization.

On the other hand, failure to understand system dynamics can lead us into ‘cycles of blaming and self-defense: the enemy is always out there, and problems are always caused by someone else’ (Bolam and Deal 1997: 27; see, also, Senge 1990: 231).

Using knowledge in a learning organization means that the team keeps an eye out for:

• Practices: what you do.
• Principles: guiding ideas and insights.
• Essences: the state of being at high levels of mastery in the discipline

Each is necessary to the others if organizations are to ‘learn’.

You & Your Leadership Learning in the Team: Personal Mastery

‘Organizations learn only through individuals who learn.

Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning. But without it no organizational learning occurs'. 

Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively’ .  It goes beyond competence and skills, although it involves them. It goes beyond spiritual opening, although it involves spiritual growth.

 Mastery is seen as a special kind of proficiency.

It is not about dominance, but rather about calling.

Vision is vocation rather than simply just a good idea.

People with a high level of personal mastery live in a continual learning mode.

They never ‘arrive’.

Personal mastery is not something you possess.

It is a process.

It is a lifelong discipline.

People with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence, their growth areas.

And they are deeply self-confident.

Paradoxical?

Only for those who do not see the ‘journey is the reward’.

(Senge 1990: 142)

Team learning

Such learning is viewed as ‘the process of aligning and developing the capacities of a team to create the results its members truly desire’'.

It builds on personal mastery and shared vision – but these are not enough. 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.

 

The discipline of team learning starts with ‘dialogue’, the capacity of members of a team

to suspend assumptions and enter into

a genuine ‘thinking together’.

To the Greeks dia-logos meant

a free-flowing of meaning through a group, allowing the group to discover insights not attainable individually….

[It] also involves learning how to recognize the patterns of interaction in teams that undermine learning.

And so... we will continue to explore leadership "information"..."knowledge"...and "wisdom" as a system

through your CAP Team experience.

I encourage you to read the full article here: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/senge.htm

Does Thunder Bay Have Tunnel Vision?

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009

How to Build the Knowledge Based Economy



Some might say that Northern Ontario has “tunnel vision” disease. We know that change is happening in our traditional industries;

perhaps its change by default.

How does a “knowledge based economy” actually work?

Some might say that they don’t know the actual definition for terms “knowledge based economy”, and “knowledge workers”.

Some might define them as merely rhetoric and buzz words. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear that these phrases are used in the

context of what a community is NOT these days.

Thunder Bay, for example, is NOT a pulp and paper town anymore. We’re NOT an exporting port, and we’re no longer the headquarter terminal of the grain elevator industry. We’re NOT a mining hub either.

So when we add the phrase, “we’re becoming a knowledge based community”, the instant connection is to the medical fields, including the medical school and research/DNA labs. It’s much more than that.

Some might say, that they don’t know who is leading the pack to regenerate our economy, our natual resources and beliefs about our City developing “knowledge based economy”. Many do not know who is driving the effort and how it’s actually happening.

We could identify “the Economic Development Office”, or “The Mayor and Council” or even “Lakehead University” or “TB Regional Health Sciences Centre”. We do know that something new is happening in pockets around town. This strategy belongs to many, collaboratively and at time unconsciously.

As leaders, how much do you - personally - really know

about this transformation to knowledge generation as the backbone of our future?

Here’s the first concept for you to consider.

If the larger economy is based on knowledge, then individuals within their own organizations need to also transform into “learning mindsets.”

Knowledge economy ↔ social innovation generation in the community at large ↔ learning organizations ↔ an innovation mindset as leaders ↔ you, as a role model for knowledge workers

Let’s work this model backwards.

1. As a leader:

What is your role in the generation of new ways of thinking about the work you do within the context of a knowledge based economy?

How can leaders collaborate to develop a “learning mindset” in our community? in your organization?

2. If you’ve always wondered about “Learning Organizations”, here’s a quick background.

Three definitions of a learning organization:

1. Learning organizations [are] organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together. (Senge 1990)

2. The Learning Company is a vision of what might be possible. It is not brought about simply by training individuals; it can only happen as a result of learning at the whole organization level. A Learning Company is an organization that facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself. (Pedler et. al. 1991)

3. Learning organizations are characterized by total employee involvement in a process of collaboratively conducted, collectively accountable change directed towards shared values or principles. (Watkins and Marsick 1992)


As a knowledge based leader, what are your "tipping point" goals for driving a knowledge based community?

Lots to think about!

If you’re interested in learning more, just google “Peter Senge”.

Next week: Waterloo’s example of Social Innovation Generation!

Contest! If you are the first to identify the sister city location in this week's photo, you win a prize, courtesy of the Easter bunny. Go to http://www.xowhat.blogspot.com/ and click on the blog's "comment" link with your answer and your name.

CAP Groups: Remember April 9!