Week 5 Discussion
The Power of One and the Power of Many
Module 1 The Power of One and the Power of Many

I have learned several lessons. One of them; twenty five years may be many, yet, they are short to enable one to assess the impact of a work. Two is that people who view themselves as smart may have difficulty in learning because they have a confidence in seeing no need to. Three is that leaders in high echelons of organizations believe that when they do admit their uncertainties, they do so at the expense of their credibility. Four is that learning is detecting and then correcting personal incompetences. Five is that it is only through working continually that we can recognize the differences between our actions and what we say (Senge, 2003). Another lesson, the notion that organizations can change with the exception of personal change is associated with the many change efforts that are doomed at first. Lastly, just like in South African during the apartheid era, at long last people do recognize the futile methods used in tackling their problems.
However, the lessons are not without confusion. One of them is, can’t a quarter a century show one the course that a work has chart let alone help assess. If it can, can’t that course of a work be used to as an equivalent assessment of the work? Two is, if one is “smart” and doesn’t see the importance of learning, then won’t the learning not increase his or her smartness? Lastly, if twenty five years are not to assess the a “work”, isn’t that generalizing because there is no accurate description of “a work”?
The lessons learned have a significant to me. One is that we should not invest in our needs to learn so as not to have difficulty in learning. Second is in order to learn, we need to detect and correct our errors. The third significance is that to have a successful project in a setting with former adversaries, learning together with them is important.

Discussion Questions
Example 1 in Exhibit 23.3
This represents a mechanistic view of empower through; one is dimensions because the middle manager has a sense of competence because he knew that what he was doing was “right”. Two is payoffs which is reflected by his “long-term commitment to sell his his idea slowly” despite the fact that he had been opposed by those above and below him; he was confident in his abilities. Three is levers of empowerment which is reflected by the middle manager’s coming up with a system that was risky, that is, working in remote conditions.

Example 2
Relation to dimensions, a sense of impact, having influence in their unit; due to her experience in such a situation made a “constructive assessment of the shortcomings in the proposal.” Relation to payoffs is whereby she makes change initiatives because she knows [innovative] the shortcomings. Relation to the levers of empowerment is where she takes a risk by making a bluntly honest assessment and she feels self-empowered.

Comparison to my experience as an employee is whereby a manager made a proposal and feeling it would be a threat to social life since it involved relocating our company, the employees demonstrated. As a manager, my experience was when I proposed relocating all company branches except the head office away from major urban centers and both those above and below me vehemently objected. As a leader, my experience was when the operations manager proposed importing what he termed as “pocket-friendly” equipment and I the leader, as a General Manager, had to be honestly object because I had experienced their costly maintenance cost when I was in the operations manager.

Empowerment lessons learned are past experience can be used to assess the shortcomings in a proposal. People should never expect to be empowered and instead, should self-empower themselves and be innovative. Influential people in an organization should always have a sense of impact.

Reference
Senge, P.M. (2003). Taking personal change seriously: The impact of Organizational Learning on management practice. Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 29. 37-50.