61 pages • 2 hours read
Peter M. SengeThe Fifth Discipline
Nonfiction | Reference/Text Book | Adult | Published in 1990A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The World as a Connected System
The concept that the world is an interconnected web of interrelating systems is central to the book and to the fields of systems science and organizational learning. Senge argues that the world is “an indivisible whole” that is “made up of wholes within wholes” (382). Furthermore, he explains that people’s difficulty to “see the forest for the trees” in management causes many of the learning difficulties that creates problems for companies (124). Senge sees people and the world as bound together in systemic connections. He believes that Western society’s compartmentalization of people, groups, and teams in separate categories creates a short-sighted mentality that keeps people from seeing the impact of details on the whole and people’s involvement in the larger system. A contributing factor to this short-sightedness is the Western world’s use of linear thinking. Senge argues that Western society is conditioned to understand detailed complexity but not dynamic complexity. Senge believes that the Western world tends to treat situations with dynamic complexity, such as the war on terrorism, as having detailed complexity (72). This, thus, causes people to see situations as “linear cause-effect chains” rather than “interrelationships” (73). However, Senge argues that “reality is made up of circles” rather than “straight lines” (73). Senge blames many world problems, including the escalation of globally tumultuous events such as the war on terrorism, on people’s obliviousness to patterns out of our areas of focus and our fixation on details. His solution to correct these flaws in thinking is to learn how to better see patterns and cycles and begin thinking systemically.
Senge promotes Systems Thinking and the other disciplines as the way to see the world more as a connected whole rather than a series of events and details that revolve around the person perceiving them. Though all five disciplines are important and interconnected, Senge presents Systems Thinking as the fifth, dominant discipline because “it is the discipline that integrates the disciplines, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice” (11-12). He further argues that “without a systemic orientation, there is no motivation to look at how the disciplines interrelate” (12). Systems Thinking connects the other disciplines to it and shows how events and situations are connected in cycles. Senge also uses circles and cyclical graphs that he calls “systems diagrams” (75). Senge also encourages the use of Personal Mastery, Shared Vision, Mental Models, and Team Learning to help readers see the connected nature of the world. He argues that the other four disciplines help people and groups “make the shift from seeing the world primarily from a linear perspective to seeing and acting systemically” (125). The visionary, enlightening natures of Shared Vision and Personal Mastery, the reflective work in Mental Models, and the collective nature of Team Learning help people and teams develop better systemic skills and see the way that the world connects them to it and others.
Learning as an Ongoing Process
The creation of the learning organization is a long-term endeavor that requires patience and gradual and continuous improvements. In the beginning of the book, Senge shares the story of the prototypes that were created between the Wright brothers’ successful experiment and the release of the commercial airplane. He explains:
Engineers say that a new idea has been ‘invented’ when it is proven to work in the laboratory. The idea becomes an ‘innovation’ only when it can be replicated reliably on a meaningful scale at practical costs. If the idea is sufficiently important, such as the telephone, the digital computer, or commercial aircraft, it is called a ‘basic innovation,’ and it creates a new industry or transforms an existing industry. In these terms, learning organizations have been invented, but they have not yet been innovated (6-7).
He compares the experiments before the first plane to the experiments with the learning organization and its disciplines. Both had taken time to be perfected enough to be used by the masses. This extra time allowed the theorists involved in both to learn how to create innovations that would be both beneficial to the public and reliable. After working with these ideas in systems science, Senge has confidence that these disciplines will help create long-lasting, efficient learning organizations in management.
One discipline that focuses on developing and improving long-term is Personal Mastery. Personal Mastery is a lifelong process of enlightenment and self-development that encourages a person to reflect, pursue knowledge, and become the best version of themselves. Senge explains that people practicing Personal Mastery “never ‘arrive’” and that Personal Mastery is a “lifelong discipline” (132). He further argues that as people continuously attain Personal Mastery, they become more aware of how little they truly know about the world and how much more they must learn (133). The long-term nature of Personal Mastery challenges people and teaches them how to be wiser and less arrogant. Because people do not truly stop growing throughout life, Personal Mastery and the learning it fosters, too, must be ongoing throughout one’s life.
Moreover, Senge focuses on gradual, ongoing learning in his focus on strategies. He encourages the promotion of “learning over time” and states that integrating action with reflection will allow organizations to make “better decisions to which people can genuinely commit” and give them a “more prepared mental state” (289). He also quotes Ilean Galloway, who has said, “This more prepared mental state is really where a lot of the longer-term payoff is” (289). Senge then explores Galloway’s use of record-keeping and reflection. He argues that the strategies Galloway shows are useful in promoting long-term learning. Promoting reflection helps create organizations that promote ongoing learning.
The Importance of Honesty in Teams
Management teams require honest reflection and inquiry to solve problems and think systemically, and thus thrive. While Senge acknowledges and understands that it is difficult for management teams to openly express their assumptions, ideas, and concerns because it makes them vulnerable to criticism, challenges their internal and or external images as competent leaders, and can potentially create conflict among the team, it is important to do so. Senge quotes Argyris’s assertion that “participative openness” does not “encourage individual accountability” or “surface the kinds of deep and potentially threatening or embarrassing information that can motivate learning and produce real change” (260). The limited honesty and “defensive routines” that plague many organizations eventually lead to the buildup of severe problems that can damage or even end a company (172, 220). Honest expression of concerns and ideas, however, can prevent these events. The two disciplines Senge uses as practices that encourage candid team reflection and dialogue are Mental Models and Team Learning.
Mental Models focus on the ideas, assumptions, and theories that people and groups have. Senge explains that “reflective openness is the cornerstone of the discipline of Mental Models” because people all have “assumptions, feelings, and at best some well-formed hypotheses” (262). Openly expressing these ideas and testing them can encourage thoughtful dialogue that can make positive changes toward creating a learning organization within a company (262). Reflection and exploration of ideas in a team setting can encourage a team to grow their company with new, tested ideas and theories and critically examine ideas and theories to see if they are helpful and accurate. Openly exploring Mental Models in a management team is also important for holding ideas, assumptions, and theories up to scrutiny. Senge argues that when Mental Models “become implicit” and “exist below the level of our awareness,” they go unrecognized, and if they are inaccurate and unhelpful, they can create serious conflicts and problems for the management team (166). Another problem with sharing these ideas is the development of “defensive routines,” which “incapsulate our Mental Models from examination” (172). These routines’ presence can make it harder for teams to express their ideas openly and challenge them, making it harder for them to develop better, more systemic Mental Models. These unexamined ideas not only cause problems in the discipline of Mental Models, but also the discipline of Team Learning.
Team Learning depends on a united, collective team that is focused on creating their goals and honesty is central to teams’ success. Many teams, and individuals in them, develop defensive routines as a result of protect themselves and others “from threat or embarrassment” (220). However, Argyris states that this can also “prevent us from learning” (220). Senge uses the lack of communication between Jim Tabor, his subordinates, and his superiors at ATP as an example of the exercise of these routines and hesitation to openly reflect and inquire about concerns and ideas. The disastrous sales drops at the company show that they could have reduced and, possibly even avoided, the situation if all team members involved had shared their concerns with each other. Senge uses David Bohm’s ideas on language as a solution teams can use to be more open to each other. He then uses an example of a dialogue between R&D and Marketing at DataQuest to show how, even though their reflective, honest dialogue is uncomfortable at times for both parties, it has helped them improve their relationship within the company and allowed to work better as a team. Honest reflection through the practices of Mental Models and Team Learning allow management teams to create strong, efficient learning organizations.
