Scratch the surface of most cynics and you find a frustrated idealist – someone who made the mistake of converting his ideals into expectations.
It is not the absence of defensiveness that characterizes learning teams but the way defensiveness is faced.
When young people develop basic leadership and collaborative learning skills, they can be a formidable force for change.
We will never transform the prevailing system of management without transforming our prevailing system of education. They are the same system.
The practice of shared vision involves the skills of unearthing shared “pictures of the future” that foster genuine commitment and enrollment rather than compliance. In mastering this discipline, leaders learn the counterproductiveness of trying to dictate a vision, no matter how heartfelt.
When people who are actually creating a system start to see themselves as the source of their problems, they invariably discover a new capacity to create results they truly desire.
The committed person doesn’t play by the rules of the game. He is responsible for the game. If the rules of the game stand in the way of achieving the vision, he will find ways to change the rules.
The core leadership strategy is simple: be a model.
In Chapter 8, I argued that personal vision, by itself, is not the key to releasing the energy of the creative process. The key is “creative tension,” the tension between vision and reality. The most effective people are those who can “hold” their vision while remaining committed to seeing current reality clearly.
There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come,” said Victor Hugo.