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HBS Working Knowledge: Organizations: Defensive versus productive mindset: Surfacing Your Underground Organization

HBS Working Knowledge: Organizations: Surfacing Your Underground Organization: "Talk a little bit about productive and defensive routines.
Chris Argyris: There are two dominant mindsets in the world of business or any kind of organization.
One is a productive mindset, and it says it's a good idea to seek valid knowledge, it's a good idea to craft your conversations so you make explicit what you are thinking and trying to examine. You craft them in such a way that you can test, as clearly as you can, the validity of your claims. Truth is a good idea. All the managerial functions�accounting, all of them�have a fundamental notion that the productive mindset is what ought to be used to manage human beings.

Chris Argyris

Then there's another mindset I call the defensive mindset. The idea is that even if you are seeking valid knowledge, you are seeking only that kind of valid knowledge that protects yourself or your organization or your department�it is defensive. From a defensive mindset point of view, truth is a good idea when it isn't threatening or upsetting. If it is, massage it, spin it. But if you massage it and spin it, you're violating the espoused theory of good management. When you spin, you have to cover up the fact that you're spinning. And in order for a cover up to work, it too has to be covered up.
This leads to an organization that has an above-ground management world, and a below-ground management world."

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posted by Jen @ 11:32 am