game. This is because there are two different aspects of openness—
participative and reflective. Unless the two are integrated, the behavior
of "being open" will not produce real openness.
Participative openness, the freedom to speak one's mind, is the
most commonly recognized aspect of openness. This is because the
philosophy of "participative management," involving people more in
decision making, is widely espoused. In some organizations it is almost
a religion; they become "participative management" companies. It
becomes a norm that everyone gets to state his view. Many even
institutionalize formal procedures for "open communication."3 I state
my view. You state your view. We all appear to be contributing to
collaborative learning—yet, little real learning takes place. Why?
For one thing, people only feel safe sharing their views to a degree. As
O'Brien says, "How many managers describe an issue the same way at
a work team meeting at 10 A.M. as they do when they are home or
having a drink with friends that same evening?"
Secondly, on a deeper level, no one's view is changing or being
affected. After stating our opinions, if we don't agree, we simply
conclude that "people are different" and go our separate ways. If
one decision representing the group must be made, it either represents
a watered-down "consensus" or the preference of the one or two
whose opinion counts most. Participative openness may lead to more
"buy-in" on certain decisions, but by itself it will rarely lead to better
quality decisions because it does not influence the thinking behind
people's positions. In the terms of personal mastery, it focuses purely
on the "means" or process of interacting, not on the "results" of that
interaction. For example, people might say, "That was a great meeting.
Everybody got to express his views," instead of judging the quality of
decisions and actions taken over time. This is why many managers find
participative management wanting. As one disgruntled executive in a
"participative management" company told me recently, "The implicit
assumption around here is that the solution to all problems is sharing
our views."
While participative openness leads to people speaking out, "reflective
openness" leads to people looking inward. Reflective openness
starts with the willingness to challenge our own thinking, to recognize
that any certainty we ever have is, at best, a hypothesis about the
world. No matter how compelling it may be, no matter how fond we
are of "our idea," it is always subject to test and improvement.
Reflective openness lives in the attitude, "I may be