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Fostering Change and Collaboration Josie Walsh is beginning her first year as president and CEO of Providence Community Hospital (PCH)

Psychology

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Fostering Change and Collaboration

Josie Walsh is beginning her first year as president and CEO of Providence Community Hospital (PCH). She knows that there are some organizational problems at Providence, such as the way different departments find it hard to communicate with each other. There also seems to be no time for collaboration and reflective practice. In this environment, Josie is concerned about effectively fostering change and collaboration.

Systems thinking begins with reflection on the organizational patterns and interrelationships. Effective organizational leaders often begin with these questions to reveal these dynamics and plan for effective change:

How do learning organizations develop core learning capabilities such as fostering aspiration, developing reflective conversation, and understanding complexity?

How can systems thinking help organizational leaders see interrelationships, dynamic patterns of behavior, and complex cause-and-effect relationships? To see the whole—the big picture—rather than and a series of discrete events?

TO DO LIST

What You Need To Know: Read about basic systems principles, tools used in systems thinking, and a theory for change in organizations.

Assignment: Write a 300-word reflection in which you think deeply about applying the laws of the fifth discipline in your organization.

Assignment Overview

This week you will write a 300-word paper addressed to a specific person or audience explaining at least 3 of the 11 laws of the fifth discipline.

What You Need to Know

Principles and Archetypes of the Fifth Discipline

Read the following in Senge's The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization:

Chapter 4, "The Laws of the Fifth Discipline," explains the basic systems principles or “laws” that embody common sense ideas that leaders often forget to apply to most types of systems and organizations.

Chapter 5, "A Shift of Mind," describes some specific tools of systems thinking that help show that organizations are interconnected through ongoing cyclical patterns. System archetypes are a tool that reveal the dynamic complexity of leadership issues and help you locate what Senge calls “points of leverage” for making organizational improvements.

Chapter 6, "Nature’s Templates: Identifying the Patterns That Control Events,” is about systems archetypes. Systems archetypes are patterns of events that appear over and over in organizations and in life. They help remove the “noise” in complex situations and reveal underlying structures of systems behaviors, including cause-effect relationships. Once these structures are recognized, it is easier to identify leverage points for change that avoid quick fixes.

Systems Thinking for Social Change

This week you will begin Stroh’s seminal text, Systems Thinking for Social Change: A Practical Guide to Solving Complex Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting Results. Read the following in this text:

 

The Introduction, on pages 1–10, unpacks Stroh’s theory for organizational change, which is based on uncovering the discrepancy between what we want the system to achieve and the results it is currently achieving. Consider how focusing on that discrepancy is a powerful force for constructive change in organizations.

Chapter 1, "Why Good Intentions Are Not Enough," on pages 13–18, explains the dilemma of why seemingly well-intentioned policies often produce the opposite of what they are supposed to accomplish.

Chapter 2, "Systems Thinking Inside: A Catalyst for Social Change," on pages 19–28, examines the question of how to use systems thinking to help people achieve sustainable change. You’ll examine four key challenges of change, including:

Stimulating continuous learning.

Focusing people to work on a few key coordinated changes over time.

Generating collaboration because people learn how they can collectively create satisfying results.

Motivating people to change because they discover their role in causing the problems they want to solve.

Chapter 3, "Telling Systems Stories," on pages 29–43, is about how telling stories can be a powerful way for organizational leaders to identify, communicate, and move others to act toward positive change.??

Assignment Instructions

REFLECTION IN PRACTICE: LAWS OF THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE

For this assignment, you will write a paper (minimum of 300 words) in which you describe up to 3 of the 11 laws of the fifth discipline to a chosen audience (either individual or group) and explain how each law points to an area for improvement in an example organization. At the end of the paper you will provide several questions for your audience to think about to promote greater understanding of how the laws might be applied to their organization.

 

Preparation

Review the Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 in Stroh's Systems Thinking for Social Change: A Practical Guide to Solving Complex Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting Results.

Review Chapter 4 in Senge's The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, paying special attention to the 11 laws of the fifth discipline.

Choose at least one of the laws, but no more than three, to explore in depth for your paper.

Identify a particular individual or group within your site who will serve as your audience. Consider who at your site would find especially relevant an explanation of the laws of the fifth discipline. Your audience could include any member of your professional learning community, your institution’s board, a department group, or other.

Identify any particular organizational challenges your chosen audience (person or group) faces that could be revealed though any of Senge’s law(s).

Instructions

Write a 300-word (minimum) paper addressed to a particular person/group in which you:

 

Identify and briefly describe your target audience (individual or group).

In your own words, write a brief description of the laws of the fifth discipline.

What is the fifth discipline?

What are the laws of the fifth discipline?

Identify and briefly define no more than 3 laws that directly pertain to your chosen group or individual.

Explain to your audience how of each of your chosen law(s) shows an observation or an area for improvement you have made within the organization.

Your explanation should be responsive to the perspectives of your audience.

Provide specific support for your statements and assertions as you draw connections between the characteristics of the law(s) and your examples.

Your examples should include specific details that promote greater understanding of the aspects of the law that you want to convey to your audience.

At the end of your paper include at least 3 questions about the laws as they relate to your audience that, when thoughtfully considered, might promote continuous improvement and organizational learning.

In your writing, try to make specific connections between the concept(s) in The Fifth Discipline and organizational details. Avoid writing in vague generalizations that do little to demonstrate a grasp of the concept or enlighten your audience. 

 

Additional Requirements

Audience: Include a statement that identifies the audience at beginning of the paper and a set of questions for the audience at the end.

Font and Font Size: 12-point Times Roman, single spaced.

Length: A minimum of 300 words.

References: As needed to support your ideas.

APA Style and Format: Format your paper using appropriate APA style and formatting.

SCORING GUIDE

Your work will be evaluated using this criteria.

 

VIEW SCORING GUIDE

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

 

Competency 1: Apply systems thinking principles and tools to problems and organizations.

Apply the laws of the fifth discipline to analyze an issue in an organization.

Competency 2: Use disciplines of learning organizations to analyze problems of practice.

Describe the laws of the fifth discipline.

Competency 3: Apply critical thinking to evaluate ideas and in interactions with others.

Create a set of questions that will foster inquiry by a target audience on organizational change.

Competency 5: Communicate clearly, supporting a central idea in appropriate format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.

Adhere to the rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics.

Develop flow with organizational tactics that recognize the relationship between the main topic and subtopics.