“With a little seed of imagination we can grow a field full of hope” ― Nigerian Proverb
According to Peter Senge holding a personal vision is the first step in developing ‘Personal Mastery’, the term he uses for the discipline of personal growth and learning. In an organisational context Personal Mastery of individuals is essential for organisational learning: “Organisations learn through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee organisational learning. But without it no organisational learning occurs.” (Senge, 2006, P. 129) Thus, enabling and encouraging personal growth and learning becomes a fundamental part of leadership – by fostering this in oneself and in people we work with.
Personal Mastery means actively creating one’s life. This entails a number of things but Senge specifically highlights two: One is to “continually clarify what is important to us” and the other is to “continually learn how to see the current reality more clearly”. (Senge, 2006, P. 132).
Clarifying what is important to us and what we truly care about enables us to create a personal vision. It tells us where we want to get to, which results we want to produce. A true vision is sparked by passion and a sense of why we exist.
When I was located in Ghana, I worked with a consultant who became my first teacher in the area of Gestalt organisational development. He inspired me on the path I am on by providing a model for me. The way he facilitated and shifted a group of people into higher self-awareness, the way he used his energy and the way he conveyed love and challenge was truly amazing to me. It inspired me to hold a powerful personal vision for myself about where I want to reach. I have been holding this vision for the past eight years and it has enabled me overcome many challenges and obstacles and persevere with both emotional and physical healing. The vision has provided me with a strong sense of purpose about the contribution I want to make.
Once we have a vision we have a calling.
Senge identifies the gap between the vision and our current reality as ‘creative tension’ because it creates energy and commitment for us and drives action and perseverance. The trap we sometimes fall into is that we get discouraged and anxious about not achieving our vision. We substitute creative tension with emotional tension. Subsequently we shrink our vision and slowly give up on our dreams. (Senge, 2006, P. 139). However, even things not turning out as expected can be positive:
“Mastery of creative tension transforms the way one views ‘failure’. Failure is, simply, a shortfall, evidence of the gap between vision and current reality. Failure is an opportunity for learning – about inaccurate pictures of current reality, about strategies that didn’t work as expected, about the clarity of the vision …Current reality becomes the ally not the enemy”. (Senge, 2006, P.143 – 144)
This is simpler said than done. How many of us start to generate one of our usual ‘stories’ when we fail? A ‘story’ about how we are not good at something, about how the odds are against us, about how something is simply not working. Often these stories we carry are rooted in deeper beliefs about our powerlessness or about the intrinsic hostility of the world.
Senge speaks of the commitment to the truth about our current reality,”(…) seeing reality more and more as it is, cleansing the lens of perception, awakening from self-imposed distortions of reality”. (Senge, 2006, P.105) Our current reality is especially our beliefs and interpretations of the world which drive our behaviour patterns. The more aware we are of these, the more power our creative tension will have for us because we are clearer about what is holding us back. In the case of my own vision I had to come to a place where I could see that I had a belief that any situation I dealt with would only turn out satisfactorily if I had control over it. This resulted in much frustration about things not going the way I wanted. As I wanted to move towards my vision this belief not only blocked me from moving forward (because we cannot control the world around us), it also worked against the competencies I wanted to acquire as part of my vision in working with people (because people do not learn when we try to direct or control them). I had to fundamentally look into the eyes of this truth to generate creative tension and get out of this belief.
Once we accept even the uncomfortable truth about ourselves as our ally, we can take a lighter stance for our journey. Current reality of ourselves then becomes what it is and nothing else. Creative tension becomes a life source. If we did not hold a personal vision different to our current reality, what would drive us?
References: Senge, P. (2006). The Fifth Discipline. The Art & Practice of The Learning Organisation, London: Random House