Our defensive interactions are very
stable: largely unconscious and
"undiscussable".
Chris
Argyris has documented defensive
interactions in the corporate context since the
1970s, 20 years before brain sciences could
begin to provide scientific
explanations.
By rigorously observing thousands of managers
dealing with business decisions, he came to the
following conclusions:
-
Model I interactions lead to poor team learning,
low commitment for action and low mutual
trust
-
when asked after the fact to describe how
they were interacting around these difficult problems, managers
were not aware that they were using Model I interactions ! But
they answered that they were using effective team learning
interactions: Model II
interactions
-
to improve team learning and
performance, managers need to:
-
become aware of the incoherencies between
what they were actually doing (Model I) and what they believed
they were doing (Model
II)
-
learn to use more often and
predictably Model II interaction
But managers are colluding, also
unconsciously, to defensive routines to protect
themselves collectively from the consequences
of Model I interactions:
-
Model I interactions include the
strategy to avoid negative feelings in
others so they are practically
"undiscussable": imagine saying
"I just avoided saying 'X' to
avoid you getting upset". And so
they are effectively largely
undiscussed
-
the consequences of Model I interactions -
poor learning, ineffective
meetings
, poor decisions, low
commitment, little mutual trust - are
either also "undiscussable" or
collectively attributed to "the system
here"
-
management considers thus that they have
little or no individual responsibility for
contributing to these consequences
-
and so they do not need to invest time
and energy in understanding and learning to
avoid the root causes of these
consequences
These defensive routines maintain poor
results from team building efforts to change
team performance. And they allow many managers
to escape the need for personal
change. Or, as written by Peter
Senge,:
"The
fantasy that somehow organizations (teams) can
change without personal change, and especially
without change on the part of people in
leadership positions, underlies many change
efforts doomed to failure."
So when we look at a team building workshop or technique, we should
ask:
-
does it create the awareness that we are
collectively responsible for "the
system here" and the defensive
routines?
-
does it create the awareness that if I
do not learn to replace Model I
interactions with Model II, I am
co-responsible to perpetuate ineffective
interactions and all their
consequences?
Return
from defensive
interactions to root team building
issues
Return from
defensive
interactions to team building
results
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