The Fifth Discipline

Senge remarks how radical his ideas were when The Fifth Discipline was first released in 1990 and says that the people he has spoken to who incorporated his ideas have made their understanding more systemic and reflective. He uses the example of BP’s then Executive Vice President Vivienne Cox, who had used Senge’s ideas and discussed matters honestly with the team. Senge notes that this has allowed Cox to thrive at BP. He states that businesses often engage in participative openness rather than reflective openness because they are uncomfortable with being so vulnerable with their teams. However, teams require reflective openness to truly solve their problems and advance their companies.

Additionally, many groups have started to use Senge’s ideas on Personal Mastery, which he finds an especially radical concept. He uses an example of business leaders dedicating a lecture series to Bill O’Brien and his mission to help people with his business. He also argues that companies must have a purpose besides profit; otherwise, they will not succeed. He talks about Unilever and one of its leaders, Brigitte Tantawy-Monsou, who has used the concepts of organizational learning, Personal Mastery, and Mental Models to help the company apply her and their values and work toward sustainable fishing. Another company that used Senge’s ideas for helping people was Roca, a group based in Chelsea, Massachusetts, that works with immigrants, at-risk teenagers, young parents, and members of the community to help those who are struggling communicate better with reflective strategies from Indigenous American traditions. The founder, Molly Baldwin, also states that they focus on openness and improving themselves within the organization.

Senge cites Arie de Geus, who expresses the idea that business managers often treat businesses like machines to be operated and controlled rather than communities to be led with wisdom and goodwill. Most businesses that do this do not thrive, according to de Geus. He states that Visa is an example of a business that has treated their company as a global community with multiple strong local branches, allowing it to thrive and not resemble a typical business. He then explores Hewlett-Packard leader Anne Murray Allen’s use of his ideas, which allowed her to engage in dialogue with her team and University of Oregon researcher Dennis Sandow and be honest and reflective with themselves and each other.

Senge explains that learning is a difficult focus for businesses because it challenges their traditional methods. However, many businesses pursue learning strategies because they want a better model for change, desire a higher capacity to adapt to changes, and believe there is a more efficient, helpful way to manage a business. Senge uses the example of IFC’s then human resources vice president Dorothy Hamachi-Berry, who incorporated learning strategies such as dialogue, Personal Mastery, and Systems Thinking to better tackle organizational problems. She used her work in Mexico and her work toward cultural change to create a strong learning environment. He then explores Ford chief information officer (CIO) Marv Adams’s decision to create stronger interconnections and emphasize Systems Thinking within the organization to build stronger capacities to adapt to change. Another adapting organization was the Singapore Police Force who, led by Commissioner Khoo Boon Hui, incorporated Team Learning and knowledge learning to combat increasing crime rates. Their emphasis on knowledge led to a dramatic decrease in crime over a decade and increased recruitment of educated hires.

Senge recalls Cox’s satisfaction with the results of her implementation of his ideas and quotes Hamachi-Berry and Allen, who also have noticed a higher rate of happiness and a greater sense of meaning among their employees and teammates. Her mention of employees working fewer hours prompts Senge to share the story of how Intel leader David Marsing reduced work hours for himself and others after suffering a heart attack. Marsing advocates for pursuing happiness, which Senge explains comes from a sense of purpose and the pursuit of a meaningful goal, rather than simply circumstances. Senge then quotes O’Brien, who perceived happiness as the sense that one is on the right track in life. Senge agrees with this, adding that pursuing a meaningful goal with people who care brings true happiness.

Senge restates that there are no universal, dogmatic strategies for creating learning organizations but that the people Senge has interviewed for this edition of the book have given insightful testimonies about working strategies. Senge explores a framework he created in The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook with his colleagues incorporating the “deep learning cycle,” which has five elements: “beliefs and assumptions, established practices, skills and capabilities, networks of relationships, and awareness and sensibilities” (284-85). Senge encourages managers to develop skills in dialogue to scrutinize their assumptions and use strategies to that guide their ideas, use theories, and innovate. Systemic thinking is also important in the use of theory.

Senge then discusses eight strategies for this framework. People must combine learning with their work by giving people a change to reflect within their structures. One of Intel’s New Mexico leaders, senior manager Ilean Galloway, encourages critical thinking in her teams and argues that reflection is important because it encourages discipline and connection, though some disagree with Senge. The combination of learning and thinking also encourages gradual learning, with Senge using After Action Reviews (AAR), a digital tool, as something that has fosters learning in teams, including in the US Army. Another strategy is beginning with what one has, motivating people to use what they have to work toward their goals. For this, he uses an example of the civil rights and feminist movements in the 1950s and 1960s. This includes going against the odds, something Galloway has done, and listening to and serving the public. The third is staying connected with the greater organization, including keeping innovations private and holding to the management team’s expectations. The fourth is giving management teams opportunities for practice, including distinguishing formal management and more intimate connection. It also involves dialogue about debate and formal rules. Additional strategies include reaching the business’s identity and examining its inspirations, allowing people to learn together through meaningful conversations, working with diverse groups of people in various parts of the organization, and creating structures that foster learning. Senge cites W. Edwards Deming as someone who helped shape learning organizations.

Senge says that this chapter is the most read of the chapters in the original edition of the book because of the challenges that come with implementing changes to learning organizations as a leader. He quotes Bill O’Brien, who stated that people do not understand the investment a leader must have in creating a learning organization. He details a workshop at which Roger Salliant, who was a leader at Plug Power at that point, and the retired vice president of Southeast Asia’s branch of the World Bank, Mieko Nishimizu, talk about experiences that shaped their leadership. Nishimizu shares a story of seeing unhoused people in Cairo and watching a young girl die from dehydration, which she saw as needless. Senge states that leaders must bring change to help people. They must help create ideas using a purpose and vision that unites people with integrity, as they and Vivienne Cox have. They must use collective learning and focus on long-term goals to create long-lasting change.

Leaders must design organizations as communities of people and commit to ensuring teams can be honest with each other and solve problems efficiently. Leadership in the modern age must also utilize IT to promote learning, guide ideas to ensure they are sustainable, and consider the community. Senge also states the leader is often unrecognized, but that the rewards their efforts create are often greater than the recognition others give, quoting a poem by Lao Tzu. Leaders must also be teachers who invite others to learn. Senge presents the question of creating a hopeful but realistic vision as a struggle with teaching in leadership. He uses a shifting the burden model to show that leaders must focus on showing people how to solve problems without becoming dependent and encourage systemic thinking in team members and employees. Leaders must also continue to learn by themselves and not lose sight of their own struggles. In addition, leaders need to serve their organizations with a grand purpose that will inspire many others. However, leaders must not become too zealous and must acknowledge things they wish to conserve with honesty. Leaders must also be careful not to abuse power and acknowledge their ambitions in life. Furthermore, they must encourage and work toward creating sustainable organizations. Senge concludes by stating that leaders need to develop their skills and work toward bringing reality to their vision through tension and remaining humble.

Senge shares Nishimizu’s 2002 speech in which she asserts that all humans are connected in ideas, goals, and fate as she seeks to combat poverty. He states that humans are all connected within systems and that businesses can only succeed by being involved in the greater systems in which they reside. Managers must move to help others in the world as globalization continues, and Senge encourages them to become systems citizens who see the systems they are part of and work toward long-term goals rather than short-term ones. He also stresses the need for managers and leaders in the world to use their knowledge of systems to combat climate change.

To combat climate change, managers must remember that they are part of the world and the future and that their actions and Mental Models impact the global system. Plug Power leader Roger Salliant has taken action to move the company toward helping people and the planet by focusing on making their components reusable. Companies such as Unilever are also working toward creating more sustainable and eco-friendly supply chains, especially with food. He also encourages using Shared Visions to bring different systems together to increase sustainability, understand the nuance and complexity of companies’ and farmers’ level of control in production, and foster genuine relationships between businesses, governments, and people. Senge laments the increasing fragmentation and polarization in the world despite globalization’s unifying potential. He sees honest, meaningful dialogue as a solution for this and considers the possibility of groups beneficially balancing tradition and progress. He recalls a 2004 dialogue meeting he attended in Hawar, Saudi Arabia, in which the women there were partaking in women’s rights advocacy, including education rights. Senge also recalls the polarization in various places, including 1980s South Africa.

He then notices that many systems citizens are young and believes that education will be central in helping young people become leaders and advocates who will help improve the global system and create better systems that encourage learning. He also asserts that teachers and mentors must play an active role in educating the next generation of systems thinkers and innovations, including in business. These leaders will be important in improving the system of education, encouraging young people to innovate and remain inspired to be involved in the world system.

Senge says that the traditional Western system of management is still prevalent, but the advance of the internet is beginning to challenge it by changing how business is done and showing people the patterns and weaknesses of the predominant system. He also observes that new patterns are emerging that he did not predict in the original edition of the book. He uses H. Thomas Johnson’s study on Toyota’s management to show that management teams must connect targets with knowledge and use patterns in nature to ensure great performance. Senge realized from Johnson’s study that organizational learning depends on working with nature, including human nature. He recalls a woman from China explaining that his book is popular in China because it focuses on human connection and understanding rather than business profits, like Western books on management often do.

Senge predicts that because of the change in management leadership, companies will soon be led by people from vulnerable and marginalized groups, particularly women, poor people, and young people. He notes that more women are rising in management, using Nike’s Darcy Winslow, Oxfam’s Barbara Stocking, Tantawy-Monsou, Galloway, and Nishimizu as examples. He then says more economically disadvantaged people are learning about Systems Thinking and other disciplines and taking roles in leadership. These include Roca leader Sayra Pinto and Uganda Rural Development and Training project founder Mwalimu Musheshe, the latter of whom started the first women’s university in Uganda. Finally, Senge says that more teenage and young adult leaders are emerging, as they are especially visionary toward a better future and a change from traditional systems. These include Zimbabwean activist Marianne Knuth, who started her higher education in Europe at 16 years old and co-founded the organization Pioneers for Change to connect young leaders.

Senge states there are three shifts in leadership: openness to dialogue, connection to people and their problems, and understanding of one’s role in the future. Senge believes more people will use these to change their thinking and encourage learning for those around them, including those who are vulnerable. He recalls Knuth’s experience with the third shift following her education in Europe and realizing that she, and everyone else, has a purpose in the world and a significant role to play in it. He concludes by stating that management will change for the better by connecting more with human nature and with nature at large.

Senge says that he wanted to be an astronaut until he found his passion in studying systems. He, however, remained fascinated with space and later met astronaut Rusty Schweikart at a leadership program. He learned that Rusty and other astronauts had difficulty returning to society after coming back to Earth, and Rusty recalled his experience at a gathering in 1974. Rusty remembers seeing the different parts of the world from space. It made him struggle to understand why people kill each other over territorial boundaries. He then began to see the world through its universal traits. Senge explains that Rusty realized the core of Systems Thinking: that everything is part of the world. The world is a whole system and everything within is a whole system as well. When asked, Rusty compared his experience to seeing a birth, and Senge notes that the whole is creating something new.

Senge covers the practices and principles of the learning disciplines briefly. He notes that Shared Vision and Team Learning are collective disciplines while Personal Mastery and Systems Thinking are more personally focused. Senge notes that Diana Smith created a model of growth showing the development of values, action rules, and cognitive skills.

Senge lists and discusses Limits to Growth and Shifting the Burden at length. He also presents Balancing Process with Delay, where people and organizations respond more toward a delay than necessary or give up on a goal. They must practice patience or change the system to respond better. He also describes a complicated version of Shifting the Burden in which the intervenor must fix the problem, which can breed dependency unless the person is taught how to solve it on their own. Others are Eroding Goals—giving up on one’s vision, Escalation—worsening a team conflict, Success to the Successful, Tragedy of the Commons, Fixes that Fail, and Growth and Underinvestment.

Senge describes the U process created by C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Adam Kahane, and others. The U process helps teams with Mental Models, purpose and vision, and making visions plausible. Teams can use all the disciplines for this process, and Senge describes its success with Latin American rural communities.