1. Theory of the Five Disciplines as a Method of Change

Undoubtedly, Change management plays a vital role in both organizational development as well as resilience (Capella, 2015). This is so because change management outlines all the relevant skills which play crucial roles in organizational development. It is therefore essential to learn that which pertains to the organization to develop it. Change management principles come in handy when talking about organizational development and team development. These fundamental principles are; time, expectations and capabilities. A learning response, on the other hand, can be the way people react and express themselves in real life. Change management principles are basic guidelines which companies must follow in order to initiate change in the same company (Easterby-Smith & Lyles, 2011).

Change is good, and it is needed while making certain decisions. For instance, change can be useful during a reshuffle of a team or the creation of a team. Change, in this case, is used to initiate other changes which can bring both positive and negative outcomes. A team development plan was notably used in session one was primarily designed to enhance people and process, and this is as result of the need to manage change. According to Senge et al., (1994) there are five disciples of change management. These five disciples are mental models, shared vision, personal mastery, team building, and system thinking.

A Shared Vision

A shared vision is a significant change management disciple because it highlights commitment among a group of people. Peter Senge assert a shared vision narrates a commitment story as the ‘big picture’ created and shared about future developments which create processes which will help transcend a group towards the said future developments (Senge et al., 1994). A good example of a shared vision is Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘I have a dream.’ A shared vision is evident in his speech since he talks about his dream from various perspectives which had one purpose. His speech was perceived differently by some people however the goal for the speech had one purpose which was equality for all. Going back to session one, one goal from the meeting was to unite and create people in a group based on managing perspectives of a shared vision. A shared vision essentially tells of a story of something a person wants to do. Among the five change management disciples, a shared vision is the most outstanding of them all. Senge et al., (1994) describes a shared vision as that which captures the importance of understanding, care and compassion.

Team learning

The second disciple is team learning. This discipline was exhaustively chosen and discussed in session two. Team learning is vital as it gives the team a chance to learn and discover insights which could otherwise be hard to attain individually. Team learning is a discipline which links the discipline of shared vision and personal mastery. According to Flood (1999), employees need to consider other employees as a team and not as rivals and the working environment should be safe in that honest mistakes are forgiven. Team learning primarily involves dialogue. This means that a team should suspend assumptions but rather engage in a thinking process which allows them to converse together and reach a common consensus.

Team learning is ‘an adaptation of action learning’ because it provides solutions for problems within a business establishment (McCain, 2015). McCain further determines that there are four parts of team learning. The four parts are questioning, communicating, learning review and valuing diversity. Team experiences vary and tea, learning can be explained in terms of a team leader teaching and questioning the team members. Posing questions to a team enables them to find concrete and lasting solutions to the problems the team might be facing. For instance, the course reading from ‘The Ladder of Inference presentation/ animation’ from the Capella (2015) metaphorically helped considerably in highlighting the need for change. Diallo, an immigrant, was highly stereotyped because he lived in the South Bronx Community. The stereotypes were coupled with a mixture of assumptions, and this created a problem. A hypothesis can be made that Diallo could not express himself well using the English language and therefore the four police officers lacked an effective communicating strategy. Because of the language barrier, all the involved parties might have felt threatened. In this regard, Diallo was fatally shot and innocently killed without having to tell his side of the story. This created a huge problem. The presentation failed to reveal whether or not the officers had badged on the police uniforms the officers had put on.

From the above case, the four police officers created an assumption about Diallo and vice versa. The officers assumed that Diallo hand a gun held in his hand and that why they shot him fatally. Conversely, Diallo assumed that the police officers were robbers who wanted to steal his wallet from him. On the flip side, one can think that Diallo reached for his wallet because he tried to get out his I.D and identify himself to the officers, assuming that he had seen the offices badge on their uniforms. The presentation intended on being insightful as it reveals that “both Diallo and the officers ran up their ladders of inference” (Capella, 2015).

After going through the above course mentioned course reading, a solution could have been fought if the common had been captured on a surveillance camera. If the incident had been caught on camera, then all doubts could have been cleared, and the sourced video could have been used as evidence. According to Capella (2015), camera footages can be unlawfully edited to prove guilt or innocence of a person. A good metaphor to explain this case can be that clouded assumptions are equated to falling dominos.

1. Summary Findings: Team Development Sessions

The experiences obtained from gathering people and uniting them as a team who were already a part of a shared vision was indeed exhilarating. As an important part of change management discipline and was utilized by the team during session one because it enabled everyone to share their ideas. Making use of the shared vision led to a realization that everyone shared similar values and visions. The session one provided the findings that group dynamics are essential as they help the team to widen their scope of thinking. One of the main objectives of session one was to unite and connect employees in a group process by making use of shared vision to generate new ideas.

I was the facilitator of the team, and that enabled me to come up with the above findings. I was the facilitator of the group which was versed with knowledge in regards to the pharmacy. The team was stationed in one college of Pharmacy which was experiencing a reduction in terms of school enrolments. Fewer students enrolled each passing year and the management, therefore, required a team to be formed and make sound decisions to uplift the college and increase registration. An open system used in making decisions was encouraged, and shortly after, the college started enrolling more pharmacy students.

The primary purpose selected for session two was the induction and recruitment of new employees. Newly hires were hardly meeting the company’s goals, and the firm saw it fit to have a team to engage in the induction and recruitment process of the new hires. The learning discipline chosen for session two was system thinking. The discipline was selected from after carefully analyzing the problem beforehand. Systems of thinking tackled the issue head-on and enabled the team to find patterns of change in the work environment (Senge et al., 1993). It is essential to learn how to incorporate individuals into a team and develop learning mechanisms which will increase team input and capacity as well. Both a development plan and exercises were used as tools to bring successful outcomes in the hospital.

Senge et al., (1994) used a learning wheel style tool known as ‘Shifting the Burden.’ My team also made use of the same tool to reach common ground and find a suitable solution to the problem facing the hospital’s human resource department. ‘Shifting the Burden’ is however a bit ineffective since it undermines both facilitation and communication. Working towards improving attitudes and behaviors might be an uphill task. The team which made up session two comprised of the following members:

1. Jessica Michelle- Hiring Coordinator
2. Adam Hazel- Organizing secretary

• Peterson John- Employee Relations Manager

1. Daniella Joseph- Recruiting manager
2. Michael Johnson- Human Resource manager

A projector like an exercise similar to the one highlighted by Senge et al., (1994) was also used in session two while trying to deliberate on the way forward. This type of exercise consists of two elements: the projector (the art of speaking) and the reflector (the art of listening). Participants switched roles during the session because there was so much to share. Both the art of listening and the art of speaking displayed interactions and involvement with the team because each member had something new to share with the other members. There was a wide array of materials used during session two. Firstly, there was a name tag. The name tag displayed reflector 1, reflector 2 and the projector. Secondly, there was a pen and notebooks which were used to write down whatever was discussed during the session.

• Facilitator: Learning from the Second Session of Team Development

From my point of view as the team facilitator, the team members enjoyed themselves greatly during the second session. This is so because they were lively during the discussions, and they freely contributed their input without coercion. Other than that, the exercise was apprehensible and less complicated, and this enabled the members to be open and accountable for their actions during the session.

I was quite assertive and listened attentively to all the ideas put forward by the members. It was important to listen and keenly absorb each idea from the members because the plans could be compiled together and used towards achieving a collective vision. Being a good listener during the entire time of the discussion was somewhat advantageous because it helped me as the team’s facilitator to gain a deeper insight into the discipline of team learning and shared vision.

By the end of the second session, developing a team is essential as it helps the individuals involved to see and perceive things differently whenever change and facilitation began taking centre stage. Jessica Michelle and Daniella Joseph at times played alternating roles to share ideas about what they thought regarding each other’s position. These vibrant professionals were not hesitant when it came to sharing information and answering the questions posed to them by the rest of the team.

During the initial meeting, the team members got along well, and there were no conflicts of interest. Undoubtedly, shared vision gives room for different stakeholders to partake in the conversation and come up with input which can then be used for the betterment of any given vision.The stakeholders in this group can include; peers, the management, suppliers and even the customers. Facilitation, on the other hand, plays a vital role in managing attitudes and behaviors to empower people to achieve better outcomes by making use of essential learning components like the disciplines of change management. Shared vision, therefore, was entirely preferential because shared vision enables people to perform exceedingly well in the fields they are assigned into (Flood, 1999).

Session two had a few cons. There were several changes made prior to and after the meeting. For instance, it was hard trying to find the right team of professionals to put together in order to find solutions to the impending issues facing the College of Pharmacy. Since the school year was almost coming to a start, several changes had to be made during the last stages of the meeting. During the very last session, our hiring manager delayed arriving because of the huge traffic snarl up. We had to wait for an extra hour for the manager to arrive and since he was to take us through the last session, the meeting could not kick start without the hiring manager’s presence. We, however, maintained a trace of good communication, and this helped the rest of the team to remain calm and at ease in spite of the fact that they had other obligations elsewhere which they needed to attend to.

Future meetings were scheduled to take place in the college’s premises to avoid interruptions. Working from a public place like a hotel was quite a hassle because we often faced disruptions and this made the members to lose focus at one point or the other. Again, as the group’s facilitator, I felt the need to inform the team on the importance of communication. Effective communication eliminates doubts and assumptions as well. Ethical dilemmas are bound to occur at one stage of the discussion; however, remaining focused was vital because it helped all of us to work towards achieving a shared vision. Lastly, improvements need to be done next time to avoid interruptions, absenteeism and late attendance. I led the team in discussing the importance of group involvement and commitment required to drive forward the shared vision.

1. Recommendations for Team Development in the Organization

Team development is essential in all organizations which want to achieve their set goals and visions. Team development creates trust among employees and management, and it helps employees advance in their careers. Team development allows people to deal with change that is unplanned and perform well for their organizations (Senge et al., 1994). Team development can be used within a small group of people to system interruptions and product delays. Systems interruption which can be in the form of a failed internet connectivity, somewhat creates problems for both the team and the organization.

To avoid this, a good recommendation would be that once a problem is detected proper and corrected measures should be instituted in order to minimize the damage. Finding corrective actions to issues in an organization will save time and enable the team to find better response mechanisms. When change is implemented whether in a small or large organization, it becomes better for the organization because it would have been enabled to utilize the change towards achieving the organizational vision.

I previously had experience working at a local diner few blocks from where I used to live while in college. I worked under the supervision of one manager a supervisor. It was quite rewarding to work at such a place because the management was good, the services were top notch, and the tips from the customers were often encouraging. Based on what I have learnt from the readings outlined by Senge et al., (1994), the discipline at the diner made was that of a shared vision. What was required of the other co-workers and I was to provide the best customer experiences and increase customer come back as well.

We worked together as a team because everyone clearly understood the importance of joint efforts. We all were more than willing to take in corrections, and we frequently learnt from each other. Learning is applicable in all aspects of life and learning through experience is ubiquitous and is found in human activity all the time and everywhere (Kayes, 2002). Maintaining the right attitude while at work and working without bias enabled us to achieve maximum efficiency. A workplace unites people with different behaviors and attitudes; therefore it is improper to form opinions and assumptions about others. Holding grudges in a place of work undermines the efforts of a team to work towards a shared vision.

Another recommendation would be for organizations to set clear and well-defined set of rules which would govern the conduct of all employees. Whoever acts in violation the laid down ground rules must face the necessary disciplinary measures. For instance, we can see that in both session one and two, the team members made use of dialogue to reach a common consensus. The ground rules would hold every person accountable for their actions, and according to Kozlowski (2001), this can be achieved through holding ad hoc meetings in an organization. Breaking the company rules means a person is acting contrary to the ethical values set forth by the organization and this should lead to immediate termination.

The following example can serve as an excellent example of understanding the importance of adhering to the set ground rules of a given company. I once had a colleague who was never mindful of other people’s input. He would always disregard the directives issued by the team leader, who was also our supervisor. Jimmy as he was commonly known, was often of the view that since he was a graduate, nothing much could be done to him. There was this particular instance when he reported late to work, hewas unkempt, and when the supervisor asked him about his queer behavior, Jimmy confidently spoke back rudely. Jimmy was let go with a warning.

As if that was not enough, he got into a fistfight with female staff. Everyone in the workplace was encouraged to berespectful of each other. But Jimmy burst his bubble when he laid a finger on another colleague. He was relieved off of his duties with immediate actions, and he was charged with a criminal offence as well. From this example, it is evident that failure to work as a team towards a shared vision has consequences. It is therefore essential to be mindful of others and observe work ethics.

1. Learning Resources:

There are various study resources which can be used to gain more knowledge in regards to change management in an organization. Websites, journals, magazines and even articles can be used as a future to help teams learn more about change management and team development. The following learning materials can be helpful to any team wanting to advance their change management processes:

1. Insightful information concepts and ideas from the Tech Republic which talks mostly about shared vision and more of Peter Senge’s Five Discipline model useful to organizations globally; http://www.techrepublic.com/article/shared-vision-a-key-to-project-success/5034758/
2. The attached site discusses steps to creating a shared vision statement which could undoubtedly support outside teams with little to no knowledge for what actions to attend for setting a vision whether in a small or large organization http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2009/07/how-to-create-shared-vision- html

References

Capella University. (2015). The ladder of inference. Retrieved March 6, 2019, from https://courserooma.capella.edu.

Easterby-Smith, M., & Lyles, M. (2011). Handbook of organizational learning and knowledge            management (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

Flood, R. L. (1999). Chapter 2: Senge’s The Fifth Discipline. Rethinking the fifth discipline:      Learning within the unknowable. Retrieved from – discipline-learning-within-the-     unknowable-online-book-collection.pdf.

Kayes, D. C. (2002). Experiential learning and its critics: Preserving the role of experience in            management education. Academy of Management Learning and Education 1(2): 137-149

Kozlowski S. W., (2001). Work Groups and Teams in Organizations. URL:             https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1396&context=articles

McCann, D. (2015). Team learning. Retrieved March 6, 2019, from www.businessperform.com/articles/teams/team_learning.html

Senge, P.M., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Smith, B., & Ross, R. (1994). The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization. New York: Doubleday.

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