Unless Teams Can Learn, Organisations Can't
This week I have been reading The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge. It’s about building learning organisations.
And a learning organisation is at the core of practicing lean management.
So, this week I wanted to share my favourite quote from the book. But instead of writing it verbatim, I wanted to capture the context around it - I wanted to make the meaning memorable. So, I decided to write a short story about it.
The story is about Sarah, a marketing director, and her team.
I hope you like it.
Sarah found herself living in a paradox that was driving her to question everything she thought she knew about leadership.
For eight months, she'd invested in developing each team member individually- training programs, one-on-one coaching sessions, personalised growth plans. And by every measure, people had become significantly stronger. Marcus had evolved into a sophisticated brand strategist. Priya from Media had developed expertise that rivalled the best agency professionals. Maya from Operations had become remarkably efficient at process optimisation. James had elevated his content creation to an entirely new level.
She'd followed every best practice from business books and leadership programs. Yet somehow, as each individual improved, their collective performance was deteriorating.
The contradiction reached a breaking point during their latest campaign launch.
Each team member had delivered exceptional work within their domain but the campaign was a disaster. Nothing connected. The brand positioning assumed audience insights that the media strategy hadn't targeted. The operational processes required capabilities that the creative execution couldn't deliver. The content amplified messages that contradicted the positioning strategy.
During the campaign follow-up, Sarah finally voiced her confusion. The team sat around the conference table, each having delivered their individual piece flawlessly, yet collectively having created something that served no one effectively.
As they discussed what had gone wrong, Sarah noticed that each person was analysing the failure through their own functional lens.
Marcus focused on how the positioning should have guided everything else. Priya expressed why the media strategy hadn't been informed by the creative direction. Maya questioned why operational requirements hadn't been considered during planning and James wondered why his content brief hadn't aligned with the strategic intent.
Each perspective was intelligent and valid, but Sarah realised they were all describing the same fundamental problem: they had optimised their individual contributions without understanding how those contributions needed to work together.
That evening, Sarah found herself researching team dynamics and organisational learning. She discovered Peter Senge's ‘The Fifth Discipline’ and was struck by one particular insight:
"Team learning is vital because teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit in modern organisations. Unless teams can learn, the organisation cannot learn."
Finally, the solution clicked into place.
Sarah began to see the gap between managing individual performance and leading collective capability. She'd been optimising each person's contribution and expecting that those parts will combine into something greater on their own.
Individual excellence was meaningless if the team couldn't integrate that learning into unified capability.
The next week, Sarah started the planning process with a simple but deliberate structure. Instead of having each person develop their component separately and then coordinating afterward, she brought everyone together to think through the task collectively from the beginning.
Each team member would present their needs and expectations for the campaign while the others focused on listening rather than preparing their responses. After each presentation, the team would ask clarifying questions to ensure they understood the requirements and constraints. Maya would then help adjust the emerging plan based on dependencies and operational realities they discovered.
The difference was clear as day.
When Marcus explained his strategic thinking, Priya could ask questions that shaped both the positioning and the media approach simultaneously. When Maya outlined operational constraints, the entire team could design around those realities rather than discovering them later. When James discussed content possibilities, everyone could see how those ideas connected to strategy, media, and execution.
Sarah watched as her team started building shared understanding of problems, creating solutions that leveraged everyone's expertise, and making decisions that optimised for collective success rather than individual contribution.
The results were visible also in her team's collective performance and job satisfaction. In her next one-to-one with Rachel, her VP, Sarah reflected how fundamentally her understanding of leadership had shifted.
She'd initially believed her job was developing each person's individual capabilities and then helping them coordinate their work. But she'd learned that individual growth is important but it’s teams, not individuals, were where real learning and capability development occurred in modern organisations.
Some advantages aren’t loud. They come from thinking a little deeper, seeing a little clearer. That’s what Off-Syllabus is for.
Thanks for reading! See you next time.