La quinta disciplina

The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation Peter M Senge (Random House, 1992, 424 pages) My thoughts about application to the Kirk are in italics. For those who can’t face 12 pages, The first chapter forms a summary of the rest of the book. I. HOW OUR ACTIONS CHANGE OUR REALITY... AND HOW WE CAN CHANGE IT 1. ‘Give me a lever long enough... and single-handed I can move the world’ We are taught to break problems down into component parts and then ‘see the big picture’ by reassembling them. Organisations need to be learning – not just have one visionary learner at the top. We all love learning, and being part of a great team. People today have a different view of work: they don’t just want the money to survive, but intrinsic benefits. There are five ‘component technologies’ of a learning organisation, like the five technologies which had to come together to enable commercial air travel (these were the variable-pitch propeller, retractable landing gear, a lightweight moulded body, radial aircooled engine, and wing flaps), each of which enables the others to be effective:  Systems thinking: seeing the big picture  Personal mastery: deepening the vision and qualities of every individual  Mental models: working out what our assumptions and prejudices are and what they should be  Building shared vision: something for everyone to be passionate about  Team learning: how to use dialogue (genuine ‘thinking together’ rather than ‘discussion’, batting ideas around until one wins) to build a team with more, not less, intelligence than its members. As an organisation you will either be learning or getting worse. Practising the disciplines is an ongoing state, you don’t reach ‘excellence’ and stop. It’s not the same as emulating best practice, always imitating and catching up. Systems thinking is the fifth discipline: the one which ties all the others together. Learning is ‘metanoia’ – a shift of mind, not taking on information but learning what the world is about, how