Learning how to deal with defensive routines when they arise would also weaken the symptomatic solution. To retain their power, defensive routines must remain undiscussable. Teams stay stuck in their defensive routines only when they pretend that they don’t have any defensive routines, that everything is all right, and that they can say “anything.”

Shared vision fosters risk taking and experimentation. When people are immersed in a vision, they often don’t know how to do it. They run an experiment. They change direction and run another experiment. Everything is an experiment, but there is no ambiguity. It’s perfectly clear why they are doing what they are doing. People aren’t saying “Give me

the structure causes the behavior and the structure is brought into play by my intention and action.

The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in an organization.

People with a high level of personal mastery share several basic characteristics. They have a special sense of purpose that lies behind their visions and goals. For such a person, a vision is a calling rather than simply a good idea. They see current reality” as an ally, not an enemy. They have learned how to perceive and work with forces of change

There are two distinct types of feedback processes: reinforcing and balancing.

People with a high level of personal mastery share several basic characteristics. They have a special sense of purpose that lies behind their visions and goals. For such a person, a vision is a calling rather than simply a good idea. They see current reality” as an ally, not an enemy. They have learned how to perceive and work with forces of change

Bill O’Brien used to define happiness as “the general sense that your life is headed in the right direction and that you have the opportunity to make a difference.” I have always thought of it as one of those odd qualities we value but cannot achieve by direct effort. Have you ever known anyone working to be happy? In my experience such people have

This, then, is the basic meaning of a “learning organization”—an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future.