Personal Mastery: The First Discipline of Learning Organizations by Marty Jacobs Published in The October 2007 Issue of Vermont Business Magazine

Personal Mastery: The First Discipline of Learning Organizations

By Marty Jacobs
Published in the October 2007 Issue of Vermont Business Magazine

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 devoted to the first of those five disciplines, personal mastery.
Personal mastery is the foundation on which organizational learning is built.

What is personal mastery?

Personal mastery, as defined by Peter Senge, is “the discipline of personal growth
and learning.” (The Fifth Discipline, p. 141.) It is more than just competence and
skills or spiritual growth. It is about creating a desired future and moving toward it.
People with high levels of personal mastery are skilled at creating a personal vision
and accurately assessing their current reality with respect to that vision. The gap
between current reality and personal vision propels them forward. This gap is often
referred to as “creative tension.” Personal mastery is about generating and
sustaining creative tension and living comfortably with that tension.

So how does one recognize individuals with a high level of personal mastery? Below
is a list of characteristics of those skilled in personal mastery:

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

People with high levels of personal mastery are continually expanding their capacity
to create their desired future. In doing so, they create the potential for considerable
organizational capacity building, a potential that can only be realized through
integrating all five disciplines of organizational learning.

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How do individuals develop personal mastery?

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

• Thinking systemically: When you encounter an unexpected or undesirable
outcome, try to think about what processes enabled that outcome to happen,
rather than looking for someone to blame. Thinking systemically is about
looking at the whole and the relationships amongst the individual parts. It is
also about looking for patterns over time, rather than taking a quick
snapshot.
• Assessing current reality: In order 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 an ability to recognize your assumptions.
• Balancing advocacy with inquiry: Most of us are accustomed to entering into
a discussion with our defenses securely in place. What this means is that we
often do not hear what others are saying. By balancing advocacy with
inquiry, we take as much time to understand the points of view of others as
we do in explaining our own point of view. Those skilled at personal mastery
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 the common ground within various
perspectives and broadening the understanding of all involved. People with
high levels of personal mastery understand that they only have a piece of the
puzzle and only by inquiring into the points of view of others can those
puzzle pieces 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 that you begin
at a place where you can feel progress and success.

How can organizations foster personal mastery?

Organizations must have people at all levels capable of personal mastery in order to
become successful learning organizations. It is important to remember, however,
that personal mastery is a matter of choice. It cannot be dictated from on high.
Efforts to do so will only backfire since employees will likely develop a “personal
vision” that they think the boss wants to hear.
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The most important thing an organization can do to help employees develop
personal mastery is to create an environment conducive to personal mastery. Here
are some ideas for doing that:

• Encourage inquiry and curiosity: In most organizations people are rewarded
for coming up with solutions and not for asking probing questions. The
problem with this is that an organization will often settle on the quick fix
rather than take the time to truly understand the nature of the problem.
Encourage employees to look deeper into the nature of 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 are not yet assimilated into its culture. Take advantage of
their fresh perspective and encourage veteran employees to do the same. The
results will be infectious.
• Change your assumptions about what motivates your employees: Most
organizations, whether they would admit it or not, use external incentives
(money, recognition, fear) to motivate their employees. Personal mastery is
all about internal motivation, and under the right conditions, it will blossom.
Create an environment that is consistent with the belief that most employees
are self-‐motivated and want to do their best.
• Be a model: It is important that organizational leaders practice their own
personal mastery. By setting an example, you will send the message that this
is important.
• Make a commitment for the long haul: Personal mastery is not a single event
or one-‐day workshop. It is also not a precise process. Make every effort to be
flexible in helping employees develop personal mastery and realize that the
gains will be incremental over time.

By creating a safe and supportive environment where employees can develop their
personal mastery, you are helping them generate that creative tension that will
propel them forward and ultimately move the organization along the path toward
becoming a learning organization.

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

Resources:

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization, Peter M.
Senge, 1990.

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The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, Peter M. Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard
B. Ross, and Bryan J. Smith, 1994.

Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) (http://www.solonline.org/).

Marty Jacobs, president of Systems In Sync, has been teaching and consulting for
almost twenty years, applying a systems thinking approach to organizations. She can
be reached at www.systemsinsync.com or marty@systemsinsync.com.

© 2007 Marty Jacobs

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How do individuals develop personal mastery?

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