The Fifth Discipline

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization was originally written by Peter M. Senge and published by Doubleday Publishing Group, Inc. in 1990. The book is a self-help book/textbook that teaches business managers how to turn their businesses into learning organizations by implementing learning and community-building skills, including five disciplines. The book uses stories about managers and leaders’ use of these skills to create success and positive change in their companies to support Senge’s arguments. In 2006, Senge released an updated edition published by Currency, part of Penguin Random House LLC, with additional information about leaders who inspired him, who he inspired, and additional strategies and insights. The Fifth Discipline explores The World as a Connected System, Learning as an Ongoing Process, and The Importance of Honesty in Teams. Peter M. Senge is a lecturer at MIT.

This study guide uses the 2006 Currency Paperback revised edition.

Summary

Senge begins by stating that after publishing the first edition of the book, he had W. Edwards Deming, an expert on organizational learning, submit a comment for the back cover of the upcoming edition. Deming’s response greatly expanded Senge’s understanding of “Systems Thinking,” causing him to think more about how the traditional system of management focuses on rewards and profit to the detriment of people’s learning and understanding of the system. He also notes that this mindset is contributing to the worsening problems of globalization, such as income inequality and climate change.

In Part 1, Senge focuses on the effects people’s actions in management have on the company and the world. He compares the development of the prototypes before the first airplane to the development of organizational learning and introduces the five disciplines for managers to practice in establishing a learning organization: Systems Thinking, Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision, and Team Learning. Systems Thinking, though addressed first in Senge’s book, is the titular fifth discipline, and the other four methods support this discipline.

Senge then explores the systemic difficulties and flaws that prevent people and companies from reaching their full potential and properly solving problems. Senge presents a business-related game about beer production and sales that shows these flaws in action. He explains the flaws’ roles in the situation and explains that the people involved were not aware of their involvement in the problem and the consequences of their actions. He then states that learning the fifth discipline, Systems Thinking, will help managers and companies avoid these flaws and their consequences.

Part 2 explores the discipline of Systems Thinking, which establishes the systemic nature of organizational learning and addresses the need to see the whole of situation. Senge begins by describing the 11 laws of practicing Systems Thinking, which further define it. Then, he explores the way that people, especially in the Western world, fail to understand systemic problems because they are conditioned to look primarily at details instead of a larger picture, and they tend see time and reality as linear. However, time and reality are cyclical, with patterns that frequently repeat. He uses diagrams with simple events, like pouring a glass of water, to describe cyclical, systemic actions. He also shows other cyclical patterns that show reinforcements and balances of cyclical patterns. Furthermore, there are systemic problems that happen regularly known as systems archetypes. These systems archetypes are common problems that can cause limit a company’s growth and or involve companies treating symptoms of a problem rather than its cause, among other things. Senge then uses the example of WonderTech, a promising electronics company in the mid-1980s that handled the two discussed systems archetypes poorly and eventually went bankrupt. He warns that not approaching problems systemically and looking at the big picture can jeopardize companies. He concludes by stating that incorporating the other four disciplines can help companies implement Systems Thinking, as these other disciplines complement one another and all feed into the fifth discipline.

Part 3 covers the other four disciplines and the ways that they can help people and companies. Chapter 8 explores Personal Mastery, which helps people become enlightened and discover their true visions. It also details how to bring desired realities closer to oneself and how to use wisdom and growth to help others. Chapter 9 discusses Mental Models—the ideas, assumptions, and theories people naturally possess. Senge encourages managers to share and examine their Mental Models with their teams and develop them to help their organizations learn and grow. Chapter 10 focuses on Shared Vision, the collective sharing of a goal and calling that unites people together. Senge recommends using strategies to keep this vision alive and encourage commitment and passion toward it to avoid conflicts and problems that can threaten the vision. Chapter 11 explores Team Learning, or the development of a team that is aligned and harmonious and solves problems together systemically. Senge stresses the importance of teams being honest with each other and reflecting regularly, voicing any ideas and concerns they might have. He uses an example of ATP, a company that suffered a disastrous sales loss and a great risk of failure due to lack of communication in the management team. He explores the theories of theorist David Bohm on dialogue and cites the successful dialogue between two management teams at DataQuest, which helped them better understand and solve their problems. Senge concludes each chapter with describing each corresponding discipline’s relationship with Systems Thinking and how the disciplines overlap and work together in management.

Part 4 begins with an Introduction as Senge describes the interviews he gave for the revision and his amazement at how influential his book has been for managers and leaders around the world. Then, he explores how companies are implementing his ideas on organizational learning and management leaders are being more reflective and honest with their team members, allowing them to learn and make their companies better. In addition, he describes companies and groups that are using organizational learning to adapt to new and complex situations, allowing them to better tackle those situations and improve their companies and communities. Senge then explores strategies for implementing organizational learning, such as creating new, better infrastructures that encourage reflection and learning and help and serve people in the company and community, including those from different backgrounds. He also explores the work leaders must do in organizational learning and the qualities they must possess. He stresses the importance of leaders being designers who create better theories and infrastructures, teachers who encourage learning, and stewards of their companies and communities, working to make their lives better as a collective. Senge then argues that leaders and managers must unite as a collective around the world and that educated young people will play an essential role in improving the world system. He also explores the ways that companies are helping bolster nature, including human nature at its best and the nature of the system, by promoting sustainability and helping people. He argues that women, economically disadvantaged, and young people will be especially important in helping create organizations that help nature and the world and promote learning, strengthening the natural connection people all have to the world.

Finally, in Part 5, Senge describes his old passion for aeronautics before becoming interested in systems science and his experience meeting astronaut Rusty Schweikart. Senge describes Schweikart’s journey to space and his realization that the world is a large, collective whole instead of many individual needs and desires. Senge restates this and says that this epiphany shows a growing understanding of the world as a whole system of connections with other systems of connections inside it, including nature and the people of the world.