THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE

The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization

Peter M. Senge, 1990, Doubleday Publishing

Created: May 11th, 2003 Sunday 13:13, Ankara

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This book gives insights about how to build organizations where people continually expand their capacites. It is very related to my own job which is research and development. Notes that I took while reading:

• "...problems originate in basic ways of thinking and interacting, more than in peculiarites of organization structure and policy." (p.27)
• "...we are part of the structure. This means that we often have the power to alter structures within which we are operating... However, more often than not, we do not perceive that power...Rahter, we just find ourselves feeling compelled to act in certain ways." (p.44)
• "...redesigning your own decision making redesings the system structure." (p.53)
• "One of the highest points for improving system performance...is the minimization of system delays." (p.89)
• "Structures of which we are unaware hold us prisoner. Conversely, learning to see the structures within shich we operate begins a process of freeing ourselves from previously unseen forces and ultimately mastering the ability to work with them and change them." (p.94)
• "Organizations learn only through individuals who learn." (p.139)
• "Our traditional hierarchical organizations are not designed to provide for people's higher order needs, self-respect and self-actualization." (p.140)
• "...the almost sacredness of their responsibility for the lives of so many people. Managers' fundamental task...is providing the enabling conditions for people to lead the most enriching lives they can." (p.140)
• Personal mastery goes beyond competence and skills, though it is grounded in competence and skills...It means approaching one's life as a creative work, living life from a creative as opposed to reactive viewpoint...it embodies two underlying movements...continually clarifying what is important to us...continually learning how to see current reality more clearly." (p.141)
• "People with high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence, their growth areas. And they are deeply self-confident. Paradoxial? Only for those who do not see that 'the journey is the reward'." (p.142)
• "Whatever the resons, we do not pursue emotional development with the same intensisty with which we pursue physical and intellectual development. This is all the more unfortunate because full emotional development offers the greatest degree of leverage in attaining our full potential." (p.143)
• "People with high levels of personal mastery are more committed. They take more initiative. They have a broader and deeper sense of responsibility in their work. They learn faster." (p.143)
• "...practicing the virtues of life and business success are not only compatible but enrich one another." (p.144)
• "Scratch the surface of most cynics and you find a frustrated idealist-someone who made the mistake of converting his ideals into expectations." (p.146)
• "The ability to focus on ultimate intrinsic desires, not only secondary goals, is a conerstone of personal mastery." (p.148)
• "Real vision cannot be understood in isolation from the idea of purpose. By purpose, I mean an individual's sense of why he is alive." (p.148)
• "Only mediocre people are always at their best." (p.153)
• We learn to rely on our concepts of reality more than on our observations." (p.155)
• "No one can be forced to develop his personal mastery." (p.172)
• "...the most crucial mental models in any organization are those shaped by key decision makers. Those models, if unexamined, limit an organzation's range of actions to what is familiar and comfortable." (p.186)
• "Being a visionary leader is about solving day-to-day problems with my vision in mind." (p.217)
• "The committed person doesn't play by the 'rules of the game'. He is responsible for the game. If the rules of the game stand in the way of achieving the vision, he will find ways to change the rules." (p.221)
• "...one of the most reliable indicators of a team that is continually learning is the visible conflict of ideas. In great teams conflict becomes productive." (p.249)
• "In a well-designed organization, the only issues that should reach a senior manager's attention should be complex, dilemma-like...issues. There are issues that require the thought and experience of the most senior people, in addition to the input of less experienced people." (p.304)
• "...there are two types of complexity-the 'detail complexity' of many variables and the 'dynamic complexity' when 'cause and effect' are not close in time and space..." (p.364)

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