Learning community

Peter Senge popularized the organizational development category called “the learning organization” in his book, The Fifth Discipline, to describe a body’s continual learning mode in every aspect of its management, administration, research and operations.

We remember the MBO, Management by Objectives ethos in the 70s, and the Quality Circles (TQM, Total Quality Management) emphasis in the 80s. Post-WWII schemes followed the factory model of production lines, and, of course, one of the favorite bumper stickers of the 70s was from a book title: “Learn to Plan, Plan to Learn.”

When PSS adopted the image of the “learning community,” and started groups to begin thinking through the management of change and the innovations required by the demands of the times’ new inventions, some of us openly embraced the attempt. Those familiar with MIT Professor Senge’s work began toying with the disciplines of systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning.

Learning organizations adopt this stance of intentionality in the management of change when it becomes obvious that within itself and in its own body, it becomes aware that the contradictions it needed to deal with were internal. It would be like what Pogo articulated succinctly, ‘We’ve met the enemy, and it is us.” The consequent and necessary primary step before any infusion of discipline method is injected into the system is acknowledging that PSS not only has monumental learning disabilities, it also wallows in relational dysfunctionality at many levels. We never got humbling awareness, so the effort was at best, an attempt to do things better, or at worst, to be just another compliant Fed’s grantee.

PSS lost an able financial officer over a dispute on clocking in at the office. We do not hold ourselves accountable to processes and products, we are entangled in mindless procedures. This came dramatically to me when at our school, I called the office that I would not be able to clock in before the 7:30am school start. My class was already at the playground for their PE, and the instructor was still on his way. I eventually clocked in at 7:42am, but because our rules charges an hour annual leave for every fraction of an hour that one is late, I was docked an hour’s worth of pay. Foolish enough to quip that I spend after-school and weekend unpaid presence dealing with classroom needs, I was accurately but bluntly told that “Nobody asked you to work those times.”

The discipline of personal mastery is seen more as the frenzy of individual oneupmanship, the gaining of dominance over persons and things rather than mastery of one’s knowledge, skills and attitude. There is earnest defensiveness each time it is pointed out that the culture of competition in the Olympic Games sense has since shifted from about being one notch better than another, into being better against one’s own last recorded performance. At sixth grade, my students were obsessed with being first at anything that the quality of their work suffers in their desire to be at the head of the line. Sadly, PSS also depends more on outside experts to come and inform/train its personnel, or, at least, entertain us, rather than locate those amongst us who have mastered generic pedagogical processes, programs, projects and products, and can facilitate the learning of the same by others. Stature by status determines the level of respect. Relationships are hierarchical before they are collegial!

Seeing a vision first with the third eye before the front eyes is what constitutes mental model building. This discipline is strongest in those cultures that have a tradition of reflection, meditation, contemplation and prayer. The discipline entails comfort in the management of silence. It is the quiet act before the spirited deed! In one year, of the 26th students in my class, three of them could never be quiet long enough to finish 15 minutes, although that is our scheduled activity first thing each morning.

Our SAT scores reveal our limited skill in listening, a discipline that requires shutting down internal functions so that one can hear the voice and message of another. At BoE meetings, teachers’ professional development sessions, or classroom lesson time, there are always packets of people who cannot focus on the task, would be busy chatting away, and even with subdued tones, would always prove disruptive.

Out leadership style is directive and dictatorial. Facilitation of participatory process is in the rhetoric but not in the practice. Our dependence on experts attracts self-promoting egos. In a society, that tolerates a lawmaker’s abuse of immunity and where speeches are made that would patently be libelous were it delivered outside the legislative halls, we can begin to understand why talk is cheap, and listening is a lost art.

At our recent Farewell and Recognition Ceremony in San Vicente Elementary, it was evident that the distance between the Commissioner and the representative member of BoE was more than just the length of a few separating chairs. Nor was the felt and noticeable coldness in the air simply a product of our cafetorium air-conditioner. Our esteemed leaders could just as well have been trawling both sides of the Marianas trench! Neither of them are known to be personally nasty and mean, but the PSS culture is not dialogical or engaging in practice; rather, it is manipulative and coercive. So the disciplines of mental model building, shared vision, and team learning, possible among secured selves, does not work well amongst egos that require regular and constant massaging.

The forced retirement of the Commissioner did not come as a surprise. The political currents attendant in the selection of the Commissioner handicapped Dr. Borja’s subsequent efforts. The inability of a few to transcend personal egos and focus on the corporate welfare, the constant questioning of expertise, and conversely, the defensiveness about one’s qualifications, made this recent event almost inevitable.

A lot of emotional energy and analytical intelligence are being spilled and wasted in raking through the aftermath of this senseless administrative bloodbath. One of my colleagues characterized BoE’s act as the work of “old ladies of all ages and gender.” But if it is also the occasion that would catalyze PSS to really begin becoming a learning community, where stakeholders engage in dialogue rather than combat, cooperate rather than compete, collaborate rather than dominate, then I am sure David would just be very happy to pay the cost.

Let the learning begin.