The 4 Enabling Disciplines
DexterityDynamism
Discourse
Discovery
From time immemorial, leadership has been associated with learning. Put simply, leaders are always learning. The caliber of any leader is revealed in the way they deal with uncertainty and/or novel situations. Especially during these moments, leaders must learn as much as possible about the environment which they are encountering. Their capacity to learn and adapt is closely correlated to the quality of their ability to lead. "Leadership and Learning are indispensable to each other." [...]
NEZWORK CONNECTIONS is an innovative approach to employee development The use of NETWORK CONNECTIONS enhances a company’s development programs in a myriad of ways. At the same time it also improves organizational effectiveness. Any business or organization can achieve the following goals through the use of NETWORK CONNECTIONS by: 1. Providing development opportunities for KMUs or Family-owned companies 2. Enhancing existing development programs 3. Supporting the effectiveness of existing competency models 4. Promoting inter-organizational networking 5. Bolstering change initiatives and 6. Turbo-charging internal communications Your employees can use NETWORK CONNECTIONS to work towards these goals either face-to-face on-site in your [...]
Solving the Challenge of Sustainable Learning in a Business Setting: Introducing Peer-to-Peer Networking Peer-to-Peer Networking is a flexible and agile concept which consists of bringing four people together with an experienced Learning Enabler for a 90 minute learning session. The content of these Peer-to-Peer sessions draws from a growing library of more than 100 modules on topics which have been written by a select group of the world's leading business experts. When special company topics are required, custom-designed Peer-to-Peer modules can be developed by Ensemble Enabler to meet a company's distinctive needs. All Peer-to-Peer modules can be made accessible to [...]
The greatest challenge for current leaders throughout any organization is to continuously learn and adapt to the rapidly changing business environment. Their ability to do so defines not only their capacity but also the quality of their ability to lead others. But how do leaders come up with the time to cultivate their commitment for continuous learning and motivate colleagues during their busy work schedule? How can they be motivated to welcome curiosity and experimentation as a fundamental approach to their daily business? To date the classical paradigm of leadership development has been to host multi-day workshops off-site. Why not [...]
Through the impact of the digital revolution, change is occurring with increasing speed in all aspects of both our business and personal milieus. Why would these accelerated developments not have an impact on how business strategy is approached as well? Digital transformation has indeed changed the classical paradigm of strategy. Like everything else in the digital age, the world of strategy is in a state of disruption. This shift is particularly noticeable to me due to my hands-on-experience working for two of the best known strategy consultants in the world. During those years, I was applying what I had learned [...]
A unique process to foster individual, team and organizational learning Coaching Ourselves is a Peer-to-Peer Networking process which enables employees to learn from and with each other. It provides a framework through which employees are able increase both their knowledge and skills in specific business areas either digitally or on-site at their business location. By expanding their skill-set and know-how, employees are empowered to personally contribute to creating a more agile organization. (Take a look at the following introduction for a detailed overview to Enable Enabler's approach to Peer-to-Peer Networking: The Value of Peer-to-Peer Networking for your Organization Recognizing the [...]
A misleading myth Change requires a combination of both honesty and authenticity. There is a long-held and predominant myth that 70% of all change efforts fail. This level of failures has been recognized as the absolute truth for over 30 years. But is is it really true? Where did this frequently cited number come from? In their best-selling business book Reengineering the Corporation which was published in 1993 the authors James A. Champy und Michael Hammer state: "Our unscientific estimate is that as many as 50 percent to 70 percent of the organizations that undertake a reengineering effort do not [...]
In times of crisis and rapid change, exploring new ways to foster group learning is fundamental. Research has determined that o ne of the most effective ways to promote learning takes place in small groups. A study from Eastern Michigan University confirms this assertion. It investigated different learning methods for students who were learning statistics. The study determined that students improved their scores through collaborative learning (learning in small groups) by up to 23 points on tests based on a scoring system from 0 to 100 as compared with with traditional lecture learning. Collaborative learning is acknowledged to work extremely well [...]
The World as Network Our world is organized on the principle of networks. Everywhere we look, networks can be discovered. It was the emerging new science of ecology in the early 20th century which observed that species were linked together through their feeding relations with each other (aka food chains). Subsequently, it was understood that these links are an integral part of a network known as the food web which connects all species in an eco-system with one another. This food web acts as a a kind of natural “circular economy” in which even the waste of one species is [...]
How does Peer-to-Peer Networking support the Five Disciplines? The Five Disciplines of the Learning Organization include: Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Team Learning, Shared Vision, and Systems Thinking. The discussion which follows demonstrates how Peer-to-Peer Learning supports all five of these disciplines. Discipline 1 - Personal Mastery Personal Mastery describes the strength of people to be proactive and keep on learning in order to continuously achieve results which are important for them. The two key factors of this discipline are: 1. Defining what is important to us and 2. Being able to see the current reality as it is. The essence [...]
In his epic book The Fifth Discipline published in 1990, Peter Senge – a Professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – coined the phrase “Learning Organization”. This idea of an adaptable organization that transforms itself through learning caught the attention and imagination of many academics and management practitioners worldwide. Peter M. Senge, The art and practice of the learning organization: Currency - The Crown Publishing Group - New York 1990, second edition 2006 You can see why such a concept was attractive then and is arguably equally if not more attractive now. Learning at the level of the individual [...]
An unlikely story of how a working class boy who came of age in Mao’s Culture Revolution is transforming management and business organizations on a global scale An essential challenge to the manner in which businesses currently organize themselves is coming from an unlikely source. It is a man who was a member of Chairman Mao’s Red Guards (a mass student-led paramilitary social movement) in his youth. Moreover, this provocation of the way businesses should operate is emerging from an unlikely industry: the white goods industry which is traditionally acknowledged as being fairly stable and undynamic. The business world is [...]
Companies are utilizing novel approaches to deal with complex issues. Such as an energy company aspiring to improve internal communications, an organization dealing with an aging workforce or a pharmaceutical company targeting to create a learning environment within its marketing department. All of the above mentioned issues are multi-facetted. Communication within a company includes top-down and cross-functional communication, bottom-up and inter-departmental communication, performance reviews and feedback, etc. – not to mention the myriad of instruments available to support this communication. Most attempts to deal with such issues revolve around tried and true methods of analysis. A team is given the [...]
The influence of over 300 years of traditional thinking patterns is being swept out faster than we think. It’s happening right now, step-by-step…Our blog The Ensemble Enabler aspires to explore this shift in thinking and what its means for all of us – both in the world of business and our daily lives. Each blog post of the The Ensemble Enabler will explore the “shifting sands” of our challenging and complex world by sharing stories and insights about organizational culture and its networks, their impact and importance. Our aim is to have each of our blog posts add a “grain [...]
Feedback loops are often an untapped resource to enhance creativity and innovation in companies. Astute organizations recognize the value and use of feedback loops to stimulate learning and innovation at all levels. Why? Feedback loops lay down the foundation for an organizational mindset which is favorable for scalable learning and innovation throughout the organization. Through the cultivation of an environment which intentionally promotes the use of feedback loops, an organization benefits from the wisdom of employees which is harvested to reap productive insights for the business. Definition of Feedback: Information about reactions to a product, a person's performance of a [...]
