Explain the learning disciplines of team learning and systems thinking.
Discussion: BUS 4802 Capella University Learning Disciplines of Team Learning Summary

Question Description
Overview
Summarize your experience in facilitating a team development session, and analyze the value and usefulness of Peter Senge’s five disciplines in the context of your team change management initiative .This is the second of the assessments based on your two team-development sessions with a real-world group. By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
Competency 1: Apply change management interventions.
Explain the learning disciplines of team learning and systems thinking.
Describe a team development exercise used with a team, based on a relevant learning discipline.
Describe a team development experience based on a relevant learning discipline.
Explain lessons learned for chosen discipline and group dynamics.
Competency 2: Analyze applications of change management principles.
Explain a process used to select a learning discipline and the rationale for its selection.
Explain successful and unsuccessful aspects of team development.
Explain lessons learned for planned and unplanned team facilitation journeys.

Context
Systems thinking highlights cycles of cause and effect. Team learning can contribute to a team functioning in alignment and as a whole enterprise, help a team sustain and reinforce its learning, and increase the capacity to act synergistically and learn how to learn. A paradox with systems thinking is that it is frequently counterintuitive. For example, an action that seems rational from the perspective of one part of an organization can have unintended and undesirable effects in another part, especially where strategic communication is inadequate. Learning teams, through the application of dialogue or skillful discussion, can use systems thinking as a problem-solving tool. However, the best potential of this tool is in effecting how teams think about complex issues. Through your independent research in this assessment, you will become familiar with causal loop diagram archetypes, which allow us to talk about the interrelationship and feedback process and help diagnose systems that produce growth, decline, or equilibrium. By learning about systems thinking, teams can align their common understanding and collaborate to establish strategies for their business dilemmas.

Questions to Consider
To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.
Conduct independent research on the causal loops, the balancing and reinforcing loops, and the archetype patterns propounded by Peter Senge. What is your understanding of them? What is the value of these predictable patterns for a team improvement conversation? Why are they valuable to help teams see dynamics that are counterintuitive?

Resources
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources, refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom.
Capella Multimedia
Click the links provided below to view the following multimedia pieces:
Planning Change | Transcript.
The Ladder of Inference | Transcript.
SHOW LESS
Library Resources
The following e-books and articles from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course.
Smith, P. (Ed.) (2007). The Learning Organization: Systems Thinking and Systems Dynamics, 14(6).
Sherwood, D. (2002). Seeing the forest for the trees: A manager’s guide to applying systems thinking. Yarmouth, ME: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Prologue, “What Is Systems Thinking?”
Part 1, “Taming Complexity.”
Part 2, “Tools and Techniques.”
Wirtenberg, J., Russell, W. G., & Lipsky, D. B. (2008). The sustainable enterprise fieldbook: When it all comes together. Saranac Lake, NY: AMACOM Books.
Part 2, Chapter 2, “Mental Models for Sustainability.”
Part 3, “Embracing and Managing Change Sustainably.”
Easterby-Smith, M., & Lyles, M. (2011). Handbook of organizational learning and knowledge management (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Part 2, “Organizational Learning and Learning Organizations.”
Flood, R. L. (1999). Rethinking the fifth discipline: Learning within the unknowable. Florence, KY: Routledge.
Chapter 2, “Senge’s The Fifth Discipline.”
Braham, B. J., Henry, C., & Mapson, R. (1995). Creating a learning organization: Promoting excellence through education. Menlo Park, CA: Cengage.
Part 1, “Why Become a Learning Organization?”
Part 3, “The Organization’s Responsibility for Learning.”
Part 4, “The Individual’s Responsibility for Learning.”
Course Library Guide
A Capella University library guide has been created specifically for your use in this course. You are encouraged to refer to the resources in the BUS-FP4802 – Change Management Library Guide to help direct your research.
Internet Resource
Access the following resource by clicking the link provided. Please note that URLs change frequently. Permissions for the following link has been either granted or deemed appropriate for educational use at the time of course publication.
The Presencing Institute. (2011). Dialogue on leadership. Retrieved from https://www.presencing.com/presencing/dol
Bookstore Resources
The resources listed below are relevant to the topics and assessments in this course and are not required. Unless noted otherwise, these materials are available for purchase from the Capella University Bookstore. When searching the bookstore, be sure to look for the Course ID with the specific –FP (FlexPath) course designation.
Senge, P. M., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Smith, B., & Ross, R. (1994). The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization. New York, NY: Doubleday.
The following chapters are recommended for further study in this assessment:
“Team Learning.”
“Systems Thinking.”
Assessment Instructions
For this assessment, submit your second team exercise plan and post-session summary based on your completed team session.
PREPARATION
If you have not already done so, contact your team members to schedule your second team development session. Remind your team members of your task and how you will use the information from the session. You should also remind them that you will protect their personal information and their identities. Plan your team exercise and write a team development plan for your second session. Your exercise for this session should be based on one of the following two disciplines identified by Senge:
Team learning.
Systems thinking.
Facilitate the second team development session, addressing the following:
Define the remaining two disciplines: team learning and systems thinking.
Explain the learning discipline you have chosen and why it is important.
Explain how you will use the organizational team development material (the exercise) during the session.
Briefly introduce the problem or issue the team will work through, using the exercise.
While conducting the exercise, take copious notes. Record the session, if possible.
DIRECTIONS
Write a post-session summary based on the completed experience. Include the following:
Explain the two learning disciplines that you examined for this assessment: team learning and systems thinking.
Team exercise plan:
Outline the schedule for your second team development session. Include the job titles or roles of the team members participating in the session. List the scheduled meeting date and time.
Describe the problem or issue you chose as the intended purpose for your team development session.
Identify the learning discipline that you chose to focus on for your team exercise. Explain the process used to select that learning discipline, the rationale for its selection, and the team development exercise that you used with your team.
Post-session summary:
Describe your team development experience in a narrative format.
Explain the successful and unsuccessful aspects of the team development exercise.
Explain the lessons learned for team facilitation, including both planned and unplanned journeys that resulted.
Explain the lessons learned for your chosen discipline, and its potential for helping a group examine itself, choose new direction, and commit to that direction.