Going back to school is proving to be a lot of fun and a lot of work.  With so much writing required it is hard to keep up with a blog.  I’m using one of my blogs as a learning journal so this one is being neglected.

I am doing a course on Leadership in Organizational Systems.  It is both just in time and too late depending on which situation I reflect on.  I’m re-reading Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline as part of my reading.  (Updated enough that I had to replace my old copy!)

There is a quote I had to share.  He says it well  and challenges my tendency to be linear in my thinking.  He says:

In mastering systems thinking, we give up the assumption that there is an individual, or individual agent, responsible.  The feedback perspective suggests that everyone shares responsibilities for problems generated by a system. that doesn’t necessarily imply that everyone involved can exert equal leverage in changing the system.

But it does imply that the search for scapegoats – a particularly alluring pastime in individualistc cultures such as ours in the Unites Stated — is a blind alley.

I think we’ve all seen this play out in organizations.  Let’s get a new person to lead us and our problems will be fixed.  How’s that working for you?