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With all seats contested, once again voters will be faced with choices in the City Council primary Tuesday. Paradoxically, candidates campaign as individuals, but in our system their effectiveness is dependent on their ability to work as a team and stimulate organizational learning.

With no term limits and gerrymandered district boundaries, we have a history of recycling representatives, both for our City Council and for our Board of County Commissioners. These are not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier when it comes to teamwork or creating a culture of organizational learning.

In today's economic climate, more and more organizations are finding that teamwork and organizational learning are central to competitive advantage and survival. Surveys indicate that about 30 percent of large business organizations actually have a position titled "chief learning officer."

As we evaluate candidates for the forthcoming City Council and mayoral election and in future county commissioner elections, we should select those with the ability to create a team-oriented culture that leads to organizational learning. To assist with this process, I have listed five core competencies of learning organizations, along with a letter grade for both the City Council and the county board:

1. The ability to stimulate collective dialogue and the belief that collective decisions are better than individual decisions.

City Council grade: C+

Commissioners' grade: F

Learning organizations tolerate the messiness of democracy in the belief that collective wisdom is better than individual decision-making. They believe that dialogue is more effective than win/lose debate. Even though the City Council was fragmented and agonized over the decision to fire Mitch Johnson, the city manager, council members deserve a C+ for trying to listen to each other.

As reflected in recent layoff decision-making, the county commissioners seem hopelessly mired in petty turf issues, micromanagement and the creation of in-groups and out-groups. This is the antithesis of organizational learning.

2. The ability to rapidly disseminate, evaluate and act upon good news and bad news from the internal and external environment.

City Council grade: D+

Commissioners' grade: B-

There is not a lot of good news for either body; revenues are down and expenses are not. Credit is not given for trying, and regardless of the cause, the council still seems unable to come to grips with an epidemic of discrimination suits in the Police Department and continues to flounder with the political and cost trade-offs of revisiting the location of our landfill.

The commissioners seem able to make hard budget decisions but the closed -- from the public and, at times, from each other -- process of making these decisions is problematic.

3. The ability to create a galvanizing and sustaining vision of the future.

City Council grade: B+

Commissioners' grade: C-

A clear and powerful shared vision of a desired future helps organizations through bumps in the road and gets everyone pulling in the same direction. Through the tireless and sometimes publicly unrecognized efforts of the Greensboro Partnership and its subsidiary organizations, Greensboro is evolving toward a sustaining vision. It is still a work in progress, but the council deserves credit for working with and supporting these groups.

The commissioners still seem fragmented by individual perspectives and, at best, lukewarm toward regionalization. They need to forge a deeper relationship with the Piedmont Triad Partnership and find creative ways to stimulate the development of a true aerotropolis.

4. The ability to surface and evaluate the relevance of individual mental models and belief systems.

City Council grade: C

Commissioners' grade: D-

People in learning organizations are able to be very clear, open and nondefensive about their basic assumptions. We all have mental models -- pictures and ideas about the way things should be and how organizations should function. People in learning organizations spend a lot of time explaining, rethinking and at times adjusting their mental models.

That is necessary because, without open exchange of mental models, we often misinterpret others' intentions and limit our ability to collaborate. Self-awareness of our own mental models and the skill and courage to test them with others is the common denominator of effective teamwork.

The council gets a C for trying. The D- for the commissioners is a gift. They are not known for their self-awareness, openness and nonjudgmental collaboration.

5. The ability to know when to let go and when to hold on to what worked in the past.

City Council grade: B

Commissioners' grade: D

Studies have shown that the most effective organizations know when it is time to let go of processes and operational styles that worked in the past but will only get in the way in the future. Reduced bureaucratic constraints, more autonomy and an external focus on the customer, as opposed to an internal focus on fitting in, are examples.

Although it occasionally backslides, the council appears to be letting go of past partisan pettiness and is attempting to focus more on serving the people of Greensboro and less on serving individual members. Backroom deal-making, trading favors, personal attacks and bickering may have been the currency of the realm in the distant past, but it is only blocking progress and eroding the credibility of the commissioners.

My ratings are subjective and each reader can formulate his or her own grades. What's more important is that candidates for these two important governing bodies be evaluated on their abilities to create learning organizations.

My grades are for the organizations -- the City Council and the Board of County Commissioners -- not individuals in those organizations. However, individuals shape the culture and direction of organizations, and it is important that we elect representatives with the strength, self-awareness and courage to stimulate organizational learning and teamwork.

David Noer (dnoer@elon.edu) is an honorary senior fellow at The Center for Creative Leadership and professor emeritus at Elon University.