Personal Mastery

Building awareness of the system and the patterns of leadership within it so that you can change yourself as a fundamental actor in it.

It is easy for systems to become stuck in patterns of critical reflection and problem solving which produces familiar solutions that sustain the problems. Developing systems thinking through individual action inquiry can build a thorough understanding of the patterns of behaviour, systems and mental models which are maintaining the system in it's current state.

Using a combination of individual action inquiry and leadership alignment has the potential to turn the tensions, dilemmas and gaps uncovered into occasions for learning and improved competence. Beginning with impartial observation and new levels of sensing, then tracking the patterns and experimenting with different behaviours we can build the capability for self-correcting wareness.

Building awareness of the system and the patterns of leadership within it should be done in a way that welcomes true information relevant to an ongoing situation even if that information seems to violate your preferences and assumptions. Being open to new information that may even seem at odds with your view of yourself and your organisation, must be combined with a readiness to transform yourself and see yourself differently as an 'actor' in the situation.

Building system awareness requires an experimental mindset.

• Experiments are:
• Risky because they are trying new things.
• Often trial and error - not all things work.
• Likely to throw us off balance at times.

Ways to Experiment

1. Start by building an awareness of your regular patterns (consider keeping a journal).

• Notice the everyday regular things about your life.
• Your journey to work.
• Your office space.
• The people you regularly interact with.

2. Try small experiments in raising awareness at times when you are normally in 'auto-pilot' - aim for around half an hour a day.

• Leave later, earlier or use different routes and notice the difference in the journey.
• Talk to people differently (louder, faster, on different subjects) and notice how they react to you.
• Talk to different people and notice their reactions.
• Move in different ways and at different speeds.
• Notice the impulses within yourself that you do not usually hear - smells, sounds, and things in the environment you might miss.

3. Build experiments into the working day - try a different one every day

• Deliver memos face to face instead of sending email - move around at a slow relaxed pace or a different pace than usual.
• Carry unusual objects around - notice what people say and how they say it.
• Visit areas of the building you rarely encounter and notice the architecture, layout and interactions between people.
• Spend time observing flows and interactions between people in highly public places - around coffee machines, in canteens etc. - notice what they say to you.

4. Build observation experiments into meetings (ones where you are not the formal leader).

• Unfocus your eyes and gaze around at the group as a whole - listen to the rhythm of the speaking.
• Notice your own feelings of self-consciousness and vulnerability as you unfocus (or soft-focus) and see if others are aware of the changes in you.
• Keep notes on a page divided in two of content and process in a meeting
• Notice how the way a meeting is framed, how ideas are advocated and illustrated, and how people inquire of each other makes a difference to the outcomes of the meeting.
• Track who talks and how they interact with others.
• Track your own advocacy, illustrations, inquiries, complaints and recommendations.

5. Begin to take initiatives that are nothing to do with your own agenda and help the group as a whole or other people.

• Supporting diverse views.
• Highlighting your observations on the nature of impasses.
• Shift the balance of your contributions away from familiar patterns.

6. Build the capability to engage in an ongoing silent, impartial observation of your performance amongst others.

• Notice and track your emotions.
• Choose what type of framing you will make - am I introducing this as a complaint, inquiry, challenge, vision, goal or test of expertise? Did I acknowledge the various frames, which others might have adopted?
• Rehearse different options.
• When reactions are not what you expected stop action and engage in experimental discovery of what happened.
• Aim to change yourself as the actor.