Tutorial 10 - Knowledge Management

Question 1:
State the differences between personal mastery and team learning.


Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeking reality objectively. It goes beyond competence and skills, although it involves them. On top of that, personal mastery is also the discipline of aspiration which involves formulating a logical picture of the results people most desire to gain as individuals, alongside a realistic assessment of the current state of their lives today.

However, learning team is the process of aligning and developing the capacities of a team to create the results of what 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, not only can there be good results for the organization, members will grow more rapidly in comparison to a different situation. The discipline of team learning starts with dialogue, which means the capacity of members of a team to delay assumptions and enter into a genuine thinking together.

Team learning is a discipline of group interaction. Through techniques like dialogues and skillful discussion, team learning transforms their collective thinking, learning to muster their energies and ability to be greater than the sum of individual members’ talents.



Question 2:
Distinguish between mental model and shared vision.

Mental model is the deeply ingrained assumptions, generalization, or even pictures and images that influences how we understand the world and how we take action.

The discipline of mental models starts with turning the mirror inward such as learning to reveal our internal pictures of the world, to bring them to the surface and hold them carefully to inspection. It also includes the ability to carry on educational conversations which balance between inquiry and encouragement, where people will expose their own thinking effectively and make that thinking open to the influence of others.

Mental model is a discipline of reflection and inquiry skills in which it focused around developing awareness of the attitudes and perceptions which influence thought and interaction. By continually reflecting upon, these internal pictures of the world, people can gain more capability in governing their actions and decisions.

Whereas, shared vision is the practice involving the skills of revealing shared pictures of the future that cultivate genuine commitment and enrolment rather than compliance. In mastering this discipline, leaders will learn of counter-productiveness of trying to dictate a vision, no matter how heartfelt.

Such a vision has the power to be uplifting and at the same time will be able to encourage experimentation and innovation. Crucially, it is argued that this vision will also foster a sense of the long term.

Shared vision is a this collective discipline which establishes a focus on mutual purpose. People can learn to nourish a sense of commitment in a group or organization by developing shared images of the future that they seek to create, and the principles and guiding the practices by which they hope to get there.