Learning Organizations or the Parable of the Boiled Frog?

An Ordinary Morning in the Republic of Hayristan*

People who know me would probably describe me as modest, mild-mannered, meticulous, and mildly exceptional — plus a bit of a homebody.

In other words: 4 Ms + 1 E.

I wake up early.

First, I have my coffee. Then I boil some eggs for my wife and wake her up.

She eats, has her coffee, does her makeup, gets dressed, and goes through all the other morning rituals…

One hour later, we're finally ready to leave.

As a responsible husband, my next duty is to drive my wife to work.

I put on my chauffeur's hat and jacket and switch to standby mode.

I've got a long day ahead of me. I need to manage my energy carefully.

So I leave at least five minutes early. In summer, I cool the car down. In winter, I warm it up before she gets in.

All so I can see that smile when my dear wife gets into the car.

Between you and me, I do it for myself anyway.

She arrives, gets into the car with a smile…

And we're off.

From that moment on, relaxation is no longer an option.

Our day has begun — a day in which every step has to be taken in a hurry.

Welcome to the Road of Continuous Improvement

I have to pay close attention to the road while driving.

Not because of traffic.

Because we travel along a road where construction and repair work seems to continue through all four seasons, twenty-four hours a day.

Potholes.

Open trenches.

Dust.

Gravel.

Just last week, I spent a small fortune on the car: suspension repairs, wheel alignment, even a tire that had developed a bulge.

We zigzag along the road like stunt drivers, trying not to fall into the holes and trenches left open in front of us.

Dust, dirt and gravel are simply part of the deal.

Without them, something would probably be missing.

The car gets so dirty that I could wash it every day and still not keep up.

I've given up.

I don't wash it anymore.

I haven't seen its original color in a long time.

Horns and flashing headlights are everywhere.

The roadwork we're driving through has been going on for at least five years.

I say five years because that's how long we've lived here — that's my reference point.

The old-timers around here, the ones who've been here much longer, vaguely remember it being around for twenty years.

I'm only telling you what they tell me, of course.

So what exactly are they trying to fix?

We don't really know.

The drains that overflow after every heavy rain and the cracks that keep appearing are probably just the visible part of the iceberg.

My wife asks:

“Why do they keep doing the same thing over and over? What exactly are they failing to solve?”

“I don't think they know either,” I say.

“If they did, this cycle wouldn't have continued for five years.”

(I won't say twenty. I believe what I've seen.)

There are wheels turning in the economy, of course. But still…

Isn't it getting a little ridiculous?

Go play somewhere else for a while.

And then, suddenly, the words The Fifth Discipline came out of my mouth.

Naturally, this completely unexpected phrase made my wife a little nervous.

And that is how another ordinary day began in the Republic of Hayristan.

Peter Senge and the Learning Organization

Years ago, I read Peter M. Senge's The Fifth Discipline.

I vaguely remembered that it talked about exactly this kind of situation.

So I figured I should read it again.

First published in 1990 — and first translated into Turkish in 1993 — the book has gone through numerous editions.

Fortunately, the 19th Turkish edition I have, published by Yapı Kredi Yayınları, includes new additions and updates by the author.

We started out with the idea of organizations failing to learn.

So let's turn to the chapter in Senge's book that deals with exactly that.

Senge identifies seven learning disabilities that prevent organizations from learning effectively.

And strangely enough, our daily road to work provides a surprisingly good illustration of almost all of them.

1. “I Am My Position”

After a heavy rain, huge cracks appeared near the military area and around our neighborhood.

One of our senior commanders noticed them and ordered them to be fixed.

The message reached the right people.

And suddenly, everything moved at lightning speed.

The cracks were repaired.

Now that's what I call quick response.

The workers repairing the road are undoubtedly very good at what they do.

The engineers who plan the work are probably very good at their jobs too.

There is no reason to doubt that.

They do exactly what their positions require them to do.

As quickly as possible.

No more.

No less.

But there is one thing nobody seems to have accounted for.

It rains again the next day.

New cracks appear.

Some of the old cracks reopen because the repair hasn't even properly settled yet.

After a while, new orders arrive.

New quick actions are taken.

Another repair.

And another.

And another.

Five years.

Twenty years.

Maybe longer.

And so the cycle continues.

Everyone is doing their job.

But the system is not learning.

2. “The Enemy Is Out There”

The work never really ends.

Permanent, systematic solutions and improvements never seem to happen.

Why?

Because, apparently, the municipality belongs to the opposing political party.

Support doesn't arrive.

Financial resources are blocked.

And so the enemy is always there.

And the enemy is always somewhere outside.

Long live the enemy!

Senge's systems thinking offers a very different perspective:

“There is no such thing as ‘outside’ in a system. We and the causes of our problems are part of the same system. The solution lies in our relationship with what we perceive as the enemy.”

The point is uncomfortable.

Perhaps that's exactly why it is worth thinking about.

3. “The Illusion of Taking Charge”

Senge describes another learning disability: becoming reactive while believing we are being proactive.

Let's return to our road problem.

“The government isn't going to support us anyway. There's no point trying those channels. Let's just take whatever quick action we can.”

And the instruction goes to the repair team.

Which takes us straight back to No. 1:

I am my position.

What we should really be asking is:

How are we contributing to the problem we are trying to solve?

Why does the problem keep coming back?

What part are we playing in keeping this cycle alive?

There is a familiar saying that captures the idea perfectly:

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is madness.

Someone has to step back and say:

“Maybe we're the ones making ourselves crazy.”

4. “Fixating on Events and Thinking Short-Term”

Senge explains this pattern through the story of two children fighting over a toy.

Lucy hits Tommy because he took her ball.

Tommy took the ball because Lucy wouldn't let him play with her airplane.

Lucy wouldn't let him play because Tommy had broken the airplane's propeller.

And so it goes.

As adults, we step in and say:

“Come on, be friends and play together.”

Problem solved.

Or so we think.

But we encounter similar conflicts in our everyday lives.

We react to the latest event.

We fix what is visible.

We move on.

And sometimes we carry the negative emotions from those conflicts into our behavior and our work.

The pressure to save the day and deliver immediate results can turn short-term thinking into a daily working habit.

Instead of solving the system that keeps creating the problem, we become very good at putting out fires.

5. “The Parable of the Boiled Frog”

You may have heard this one before.

It's entertaining.

And a little disturbing.

The story goes like this:

Throw a frog into boiling water and it will jump out.

Put it into water at room temperature and slowly raise the temperature, however, and the poor frog supposedly stays there without realizing what is happening — until it reaches boiling point.

You know the rest.

There is probably no need to explain who the frog represents.

Every morning, I drive to work zigzagging between potholes, accompanied by horns and flashing headlights.

Obviously, I'm not the frog.

You are.

Just kidding.

The real question is not whether the temperature has changed.

The question is:

Have we noticed the change?

6. “The Delusion of Learning from Experience”

We often say that the best way to learn is through experience.

And it is.

But experience is not always a luxury we can afford.

Especially in the public sector, there is often very little room for trial and error.

Every wrong step can create consequences that remain for years.

So don't feel too bad.

We've got the boiled frog principle, after all.

At some point, we become accustomed to the situation.

We become desensitized.

And eventually, not reacting becomes the new normal.

7. “The Myth of the Management Team”

Senge's final learning disability concerns the management team.

A professional, cautious, well-aligned management team may look like a strength.

But when that team resists learning and change, and closes itself off to different views and open dialogue, it can become one of the very things that prevents an organization from learning.

The mindset becomes:

Protect the existing system.

Follow the boss.

And, as a second priority, make sure no one from outside the crew gets on our ship.

What we call employee engagement can sometimes turn into something much closer to conformity.

Fit in.

Adapt.

Don't challenge the system.

So, What Creates an Organization That Cannot Learn?

Consider the management systems we have built around us:

• A strong focus on results
• Firefighting instead of systemic problem solving
• The assumption that there is one right answer and everything else is wrong
• Excluding ideas that differ from the mainstream
• Ignoring individual differences
• A destructive competitive environment
• Control-oriented management
• Keeping management satisfied and simply getting through the day

And the result?

People gradually stop looking at the whole system.

They focus on protecting their own territory.

Their own targets.

Their own position.

And if organizations are living, organic systems shaped by the people within them, then organizations that cannot learn are also created — and shaped — by the way we manage them.

Perhaps the real question is not:

“Why can't our organization learn?”

Perhaps it is:

“What are we doing every day that makes learning difficult?”

* About Hayristan

Hayristan is the fictional country where the stories in Tahsin Yücel's The Golyan Revolution (Golyan Devrimi), first published in 2008, take place.