Experience shows that organizations have the most difficulty at learning when the problems are difficult and embarrassing or threatening precisely when they need learning most.

An organizational defense is a policy, practice, or action that prevents the participants (at any level of the organization) from experiencing embarrassment, or threat, and, at the same time prevents them from discovering the causes of the embarrassment or threat.
Source: Chris Argryis (sp?)

This quote comes from a book I loaned out years ago, and all I have of the book is the quote. I don’t even remember the book title but this truth has become something of a touchstone for me in my readings on public school districts. Yet, it is not just about public schools, but ALL organizations.

NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered the city’s public schools to start using student achievement data in the evaluations of teachers who are up for tenure this school year.

“It is an aggressive policy, but our obligation is to take care of our kids,” Bloomberg said last week in a speech in Washington.

“Nobody wants to promote and give lifetime employment to teachers who can’t teach,” Bloomberg told reporters after the speech. “Those days are gone.”
Source: Evaluating Teaching In Order To Fire Them? Larry Ferlazzo

What organizational defenses are in place to protect poor work in schools? Those merit our attention more than considering how to hold accountable the lack of merit among the oppressed in our classrooms.

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