The Fifth Discipline

William “Bill” O’Brien (1932-2002) was the CEO of Hanover Insurance Companies from 1979 to 1991. Before he joined Hanover, he served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956 and, after, worked at SAFECO and Security Insurance of Hartford. He then joined Hanover Insurance Companies in 1971, where he rose to the positions of president and CEO. In these positions, he helped Hanover rise to become one of the top insurance companies by the 1990s. After retiring in 1991, O’Brien continued advocating for companies’ growth in community work and personal improvement. He also helped found the MIT Center for Organizational Learning and Generon Consulting. He died in 2002 at the age of 69.

O’Brien’s business philosophy consisted largely of a desire to help his employees and other people not only satisfy their basic survival needs but also achieve true happiness in life and work toward self-actualization. He also believed that a successful business is one that cares about its workers and humanity, not only about profit. Senge took inspiration from this philosophy and used Hanover’s impressive success in business and management under his leadership as proof that his collectivist, humanitarian philosophy had helped his business. He also knew O’Brien personally, having become colleagues with him in their shared passion for organizational learning.

Chris Argyris (1923-2013) was an American business theorist and professor who specialized in organizational learning. He was the child of Greek immigrant parents and served in the United States Army Signal Corps. He then received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Clark University, a master of science degree in psychology and economics from the University of Kansas, and a PhD from Cornell University, having written a thesis covering organizational behavior. He became a professor at Yale School of Management before beginning a position as an Education and Organizational Behavior professor at Harvard. He died in 2013 at the age of 90.

Argyris’s writings have inspired both Senge’s and Bill O’Brien’s philosophies on organizational learning. Argyris had encouraged openness in management teams rather than avoidance of problems to maintain an image of control through “defensive routines” and “participative openness” (172, 220, 260). Senge credits Argyris’s ideas about reflection in teams with helping shape O’Brien’s efficient leadership. Argyris had also held multiple workshops on challenging existing Mental Models, one of which Senge attended. The latter recalls realizing the assumptions he held as a result. Senge also received inspiration from Argyris’s use of left-hand columns to voice assumptions, which he notes had helped him be more open about his assumptions as well.

Arie de Geus (1930-2019) was a Dutch business executive and scenario planner who worked with Royal Dutch Shell from 1951 until he retired in 1989. He served as the head of the company’s Strategic Planning Group and worked at MIT’s Center for Organizational Learning. He wrote three business articles: “Planning as Learning” (1988), “Companies: What Are They?” (1995), and “The Living Company” (1997). He died in 2019 at the age of 89.

Senge cites de Geus’s assertion that planning should be taken as an opportunity for managers to learn and produce efficient Mental Models. Senge credits de Geus’s knowledge of Mental Models with helping Shell thrive during the oil crises in the 1970s. De Geus’s input on Mental Models and sharing assumptions and theories with other managers and employees helps shape the attitude and structure Senge encourages managers to use in their application of Mental Models. Later in the book, he states that de Geus saw the importance of companies prioritizing people more than profit and uses his findings in his article “The Living Company” to show how the companies that do not invest in more than profit do not thrive contrary to what many people, including many in management, believe.

Kazuo Inamori (1932-2022) was a Japanese entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the Japanese ceramics and electronics company Kyocera in 1959, where he served as president until his retirement in 1995, and the telecommunications company KDDI Corporation in 2000. He had also served as chairman of Japanese Airlines from 2010 to 2012, having been invited to help the company as it approached bankruptcy in 2009. In addition, he served as an International Advisor of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. He died in 2022 at the age of 90.

Inspired by his traditional Japanese culture, Inamori strove toward perfection in his company and wished to foster a culture of hard work and service to others. He was also a Zen Buddhist priest, which inspired his goals to provide goods and services that would help people live fulfilling, purposeful lives and encourage his employees and others to treat people with generosity and kindness. Inamori’s collectivist mindset and advocacy of promoting enlightenment in organizations greatly inspired Senge’s studies on organizational learning and he uses Inamori’s philosophy as an example of the application and nature of the discipline of Personal Mastery. His philosophy also centers the personal growth central to Personal Mastery not on a self-centered desire for personal achievement, but on using that growth to better support one’s community and the world.

Ilean Galloway is an American businesswoman. She was one of the managers Senge mentions in the book. When the revised edition was written in 2006, she was the Senior Manager of Organizational Learning at Intel’s New Mexico location. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and her doctoral degree from The George Washington University. Galloway currently works as the executive director of Organizational Development and Learning at Eisai, Inc., in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

In the book, Senge states that Galloway uses Team Learning strategies such as reflection and inquiry exercises to create meaningful dialogue with her colleagues. He quotes her assertion that many managers and leaders are overwhelmed by the idea of reflection and that management teams must find the time to approach complex situations together honestly without becoming overconfident in technology. Galloway also described her experience of working to advance in her company as a Black woman, finding the confidence to do so from learning about the role regular people had in the civil rights and feminist movements and reading an article by Ebony magazine publisher John H. Johnson who eventually got his magazine published against 1950s white society’s expectations. Senge praises Galloway in the book as a brilliant leader who has built a massive network of fellow leaders and helped them achieve success. He also uses her as an example of one of the many rising women in management, paving the way for other women in and out of the management world.