Key Topics The third "cog" in
the area of "knowing," which we call the "Self as an Agent of
Change," becomes then, the mechanism for creating deep knowledge, which
we define as meaning a level of understanding consistent with the external world
and our internal framework. The other purpose of Self as an Agent of Change
is to take this deep knowledge and use it for the dual purpose of our own individual
learning and growth and for making changes in the external world. There are
ten elements we will discuss here. Five of them are internal: Know
Thyself, Mental Models, Emotional
Intelligence, Learning and Forgetting, and Mental
Defenses; and five of them are external: Modeling Behaviors,
Knowledge Sharing, Dialogue,
Storytelling and Persuasion. The internal elements of "Self as an Agent of Change" are: Know Thyself, Mental Models, Emotional Intelligence, Learning and Forgetting, and Mental Defenses. The discussion
below identifies a number of factors that can help achieve an appropriate balance
between change and our resistance to change. This is an important attribute:
not all change is for the best, yet rigidity begets antiquity. This balance
is a priori situational and comes only from experience, learning and a deep
sense of knowing when to change and when not to change the self. Alexander Pope, in his essay on man, noted that: "Know then thyself, presume not God to
scan; the proper study of mankind is man." An earlier Greek philosopher,
Thales, said this perhaps even better. "Know thyself." We often think
we know ourselves, but we rarely do. To really understand our own biases, perceptions,
capabilities, etc., each of us must look inside and, as objectively as possible,
ask ourselves, who are we, what are our limitations, what are our strengths,
and what jewels and baggage do we carry from our years of experience. Rarely
do we "take ourselves out of ourselves and look at ourselves." Without
an objective understanding of our own values, beliefs, and biases, we are continually
in danger of misunderstanding the interpretation we give to the external world.
Our motives, expectations, decisions and beliefs are frequently driven by internal
forces within us, of which we are completely unaware. For example, as will be
discussed shortly, our emotional state plays a strong role in determining how
we make decisions and what we decide. The first step in knowing ourselves is awareness of the fact that we cannot assume we are what
our conscious mind thinks we are. Two examples that most of us have experienced
come to mind. The first is that we frequently do not know what we think until
we hear what we say. The second example is the recognition that every act of
writing is an act of creativity. Our biases, prejudices, and even brilliant
ideas frequently remain unknown to us until pointed out by others or through
conversations. After awareness
comes the need to constantly monitor ourselves for undesirable traits or biases
in our thinking and processing. Seeking observations from others and carefully
analyzing our individual experiences are both useful in understanding ourselves.
We all have limitations and strengths that we must be aware of and build upon. Part of knowing
ourselves is the understanding of what mental models we have formed in specific
areas of the external world. Mental models are the models we use to represent
our own picture of reality. They are built up over time and through experience
and represent our beliefs, assumptions, and ways of interpreting the outside
world. They are efficient in that they allow us to react quickly to changing
conditions and make rapid decisions based upon our presupposed model. Concomitantly,
they are dangerous if the model is inaccurate or misleading. Because of the
current rapidly changing environment, many of our models quickly become outdated.
We then must recognize the importance of continuously reviewing our perceptions
and assumptions of the external world and questioning our own mental models
to ensure they are consistent with reality. The art of knowing
in warfare must not only include the understanding of our own mental models,
but also the ability to recognize and deal with the mental models of the enemy.
Mental models frequently serve as drivers for our actions as well as our interpretations.
The use of small groups, dialogue, etc. to normalize mental models with respected
colleagues provides somewhat of a safeguard against the use of incomplete or
erroneous mental models to create deep knowledge or take action. A subtle but
powerful factor underlying mental models is the role of emotions in influencing
our perception of reality. This has been brought to light by Daniel Goleman
in his seminal book Emotional Intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the ability
to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions
as a source of human energy, information, connection, and influence. It includes
self-control, zeal and persistence, and the ability to motivate oneself (Cooper
and Sawaf, 1996) (Goleman, 1995). An example of application to the work environment:
a team member uses empathy to understand the strongly-expressed viewpoint of
another team member and, contrary to his normal tendency, chooses to react calmly
while preserving the two-way exchange of thoughts. To understand Emotional
Intelligence, we study how emotions affect behavior, influence decisions, motivate
people to action and impact their ability to interrelate. Emotions play a much
larger role in our lives than previously thought, including a strong role in
decision making. For years it was widely held that rationality was the way of
the executive. Now it is becoming clear that both the rational and the emotional
parts of the mind must be used together to get the best performance in organizations. Much of emotional
life is unconscious. Awareness of emotions occurs when the emotions enter the
frontal cortex. Subconscious emotions play a powerful role in how we perceive
and act, and hence in our decision-making. Feelings come from the limbic part
of the brain and come forth before any related experiences that created them.
They represent a signal that a given potential action may be wrong, or right.
Emotions assign values to options or alternatives, sometimes without our knowing
it. There is growing
evidence that fundamental ethical stances in life stem from underlying emotional
capacities (Goleman, 1995). These stances create the basic belief system, the
values and often the underlying assumptions that are used to see the world-our
mental model. From this short treatment of the concept, it is clear that Emotional
Intelligence is interwoven across the ten elements of Self as an Agent of Change. Creating the deep
knowledge of knowing through the effective use of Emotional Intelligence opens
the door to two other equally important factors: learning and forgetting. Learning
and forgetting are critical elements of Self as an Agent of Change because they
are the primary processes through which we change and grow. They are also the
prerequisite for continuous learning, so essential for developing competencies
representing all of the processes and capabilities discussed previously. Because
the environment is highly dynamic and will continue to become more complex and
information and knowledge saturated, learning will become more and more essential
and critical in keeping up with the world. For learning to be effective, certain
criteria must be met. A willingness to exert mental effort, curiosity, the ability
to challenge others and ourselves, the self knowledge to permit us to maintain
an objectivity and open mind toward things that appear paradoxical or contrary
to our experience, and most of all a willingness to experiment, to play with
ideas, and to take risks are all parts of effective learning. The classic learning
process is called single loop learning in which trial and error and changing
our actions according to perceived results create a closed learning loop. This
works well under steady-state conditions where the learner eventually finds
the right approach to solve a given problem. When the environment is changing
rapidly and the learner's belief system prevents generating effective solutions,
a different approach is essential. In double-loop learning we challenge our
internal beliefs and perceptions and identify new beliefs and perceptions that
most effectively represent reality, thus yielding solutions to our problems.
This can be quite difficult because we have usually built up defense mechanisms
that make it hard to change our internal beliefs. The true test of learning
is what we do differently today than what we did yesterday. Since humans have
limited processing capability and the mind is easily overloaded and clings to
its past knowledge, "forgetting" becomes as important as learning.
Forgetting is the art of being able to give up what was known and true in the
past. Being able to let go of past knowledge is essential before creating new
mental models and for understanding ourselves as we grow. It is one of the hardest
acts of the human mind because it threatens our self-image and may shake even
our core belief systems. The biggest barrier
to learning and forgetting arises from our own individual ability to develop
invisible defenses against changing our beliefs. These self-imposed mental defenses
have been described by Chris Argyrus. The essence of their conclusions is that
the mind creates built-in defense mechanisms to support our belief systems and
experience. These defense mechanisms are invisible to the individual and may
be quite difficult to expose in a real-world situation. They thus represent
invisible barriers to change. Several authors
have estimated that information and knowledge double approximately every nine
months. If this estimate is even close, the problems of saturation will continue
to make our ability to acquire deep knowledge even more challenging. We must
learn how to filter data and information through vision, values, goals, and
purposes, using intuition and judgment as our tools. This discernment and discretion
within the deepest level of our minds provides a proactive aspect of filtering,
setting up purposeful mental defenses that reduce complexity and provide conditional
safeguards to an otherwise open system. This is a fundamental way in which the
self can simplify a situation by eliminating extraneous and undesirable information
and knowledge coming from the external world. The previous section addressed the Self as an Agent of Change through internal
recognition of certain factors that can influence self-change. Another aspect
of change is the ability of the self to influence or change the external world.
This is the active part of knowing. Once the self has attained deep knowledge
and understanding of the situation and of the enemy, this must be shared with
others, accompanied by the right actions to achieve warfighting success. The
following external elements are addressed below: Modeling
Behaviors, Knowledge Sharing, Dialogue,
Storytelling, and the Persuasion.
Once internal understanding
is achieved, the challenge becomes that of translating knowledge into behavior,
thus creating the ability to model that behavior to influence others into taking
requisite actions. Role modeling has always been a prime responsibility of leadership
in the military as well as in the civilian world. Having deep knowledge of the
situation the individual must then translate that into personal actions that
become a role model for others to follow and become motivated and knowledgeable
about how to act. Effective role modeling does not require the learner to have
the same deep knowledge as the role model, yet the actions and behaviors that
result may reflect the equivalent deep knowledge - but only in specific situations.
This is how you share the effectiveness from learning and thereby transfer implicit
knowledge. The military leadership
model is built on the fundamental premise of modeling behavior. While accession
training for both the Officer Corps and enlisted ranks includes exposure to
leadership principles, it is the modeling of leadership by seniors in the chain-of-command
that helps form the lasting leadership traits of subordinates. Seniors are expected
to continuously demonstrate the highest standards of leadership such as duty,
honor, integrity, professionalism, and a sincere concern for the well being
of subordinates. Juniors are expected to observe these leadership traits in
action and then internalize them in the process of developing their own personal
leadership style. An example of this
leadership modeling can be seen in the career path of a submarine officer. During
an initial tour as a division officer, the junior submarine officer is not only
learning the necessary skills required to operate the submarine, but he is also
observing the leadership being modeled by his department head, executive officer
and commanding officer. This same pattern of observing the leadership traits
of seniors is repeated in subsequent submarine tours as a department head and
then executive officer. During the executive officer tour the table is turned
and the commanding officer is observing the leadership qualities of the XO to
determine whether he possesses the leadership traits necessary to assume the
privileged role of submarine commanding officer. Wherever possible,
of course, it is preferable to share as much knowledge as possible to allow
others to act independently and develop their own internally and situation-driven
behavior. Since much of deep knowledge is tacit, knowledge sharing can become
a real challenge. Knowledge makes
people feel important. If workers are rewarded for their individual level of
knowledge and expertise, then they are motivated to try to increase this level,
while at the same time ensuring that the level of their competitors for such
rewards (usually co-workers competing for salary and promotion) does not increase.
This, of course, leads to the harboring of knowledge and the so-called "Knowledge
is Power" culture within an organization. If a person hoards
information and knowledge, he or she may become known as an expert in a particular
area with the likely benefit to the individual, but not to the organization.
People have little incentive or are often not motivated to share knowledge with
one who hoards, as they receive nothing in return. Thus a hoarder's overall
knowledge may decrease in the longer term at the detriment to both the person
and the organization. A third technique
for orchestrating external change is through the use of dialogue. Dialogue is
a process first originated by David Bohm to create a situation in which a group
participates as coequals in inquiring and learning about some specific topic.
In essence, the group creates a common understanding and shared perception of
a given situation or topic. Dialogue is frequently viewed as the collaborative
sharing and development of understanding. It can include both inquiry and discussions,
but it must suspend judgment and not seek specific outcomes and answers. It
stresses the examination of underlying assumptions and listening deeply to the
self and others to develop a collective meaning. This collective meaning is
perhaps the best way in which the deep knowledge of a situation that we have
been addressing in this paper may be developed as a group and understood by
others. Another way of creating change and sharing understanding is through the effective
use of the time-honored process of storytelling. Storytelling is a valuable
tool in helping to build a common understanding of our current situation in
anticipating possible futures and preparing to act on those possible futures.
Stories tap into a common consciousness that is natural to all human communities.
Repetition of universal story forms carries a subliminal message, a sub-text
that can help convey a high level of complex meaning. Since common values enable
consistent action, "Story in this guise creates a heuristic framework to
allow decision-making in conditions of uncertainty." This form of communication
is currently being utilized at the highest levels of the Department of the Navy.
For example, the Undersecretary of the Navy used stories to envision applications
of a Navy Marine Corps Intranet during Congressional hearings held in April
2000. (See white paper on Storytelling.)
Modeling behavior,
knowledge sharing, dialogue, and storytelling are all forms of building understanding
and knowledge. Persuasion, our fifth technique, serves to convince others of
a specific conviction or belief and/or to act upon it. To change the external
environment, we need to be persuasive and to communicate the importance and
need for others to take appropriate action. The question arises: When you have
deep knowledge, what aspects of this can be used to effectively influence other's
behavior? Since deep knowledge is tacit knowledge, we must learn how to transfer
this to explicit knowledge. Nonako and Taguichi and Polyani have done seminal
work in this area. Persuasion, as seen from the perspective of the self, gets us back to the importance of using all of our fundamental values, such as personal example, integrity, honesty, and openness to help transfer our knowing to others. Knowing: Self as an Agent of Change
Internal Elements of "Self as an Agent of Change"
Know Thyself
Mental Models
Emotional Intelligence
Learning And Forgetting
Mental Defenses
External Elements of "Self as an Agent of Change"
Modeling Behaviors
Knowledge Sharing
If people share knowledge (and are recognized for sharing knowledge) within
an organization, several things can happen:
Dialogue
Storytelling
Persuasion