Book Review: The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge

This week's review is on The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization (Revised and Updated) by Peter M. Senge.

Senge presents a guide for businesses looking to think long-term and big picture in The Fifth Discipline. Although more philosophical and meandering than a traditional book, for business operations staff and school boards, The Fifth Discipline could serve as a helpful road map to being less reactive and more attuned to potential in their schools.

Peter Senge begins by introducing five component technologies (or disciplines for humans) to aid the innovation of large organizations. These come together to form an "ensemble" and should leave to experimentation and advancement rather than being rooted in an achievable benchmark.

1. Systems Thinking is "a conceptual framework.. to make the full patterns clearer, and to help us see how to change them effectively" (7).

2. Personal Mastery is "the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively" (7).

3. Mental Models are "deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations... that influence how we understand the world and how we take action" (8).

4. Building Shared Vision is creating a genuine vision where "people excel and learn...because they want to" and grows out of "unearthing shared 'pictures of the future'" (9).

5. Team Learning is rooted in dialogue or "thinking together" where the "rubber meets the road" (10)

After clearly presenting these, Senge's book meanders through them mixing examples from the business world with discussion and instruction on each. He begins in highlighting 7 organizational learning disabilities (my favorite is "the enemy is out there"). This also includes the damning critique that education "trains us never to admit that we do not know the answer" (25). Senge then goes to show how our thinking traps us in failure.

Part II builds on this by promoting a new conceptual understanding of the world: systems thinking that is "needed more than ever because we are becoming overwhelmed by complexity" (69). The key for Senge lies in "dynamic complexity" not detail complexity and that real systems thinking shifts to seeing interrelationships and processes rather than linear chains or moments (72-73). He illustrates these systems with basic models centered on feedback or reciprocal "flow of influence" (75). This feedback can reinforce/amplify or balance/stabilize systems. It is this drift to the middle in balancing that can cause an organization to "slow down." Feedback is joined by delays - which vary across systems but are always present.

Senge continues and presents a series of templates of systems - focusing on where the leverage is to change the systems. "Skillful leader is always focused on the next set of limitations and working to understand their nature and how they can be addressed" (101). Those leaders also make sure to remain focused on the actual problem not the symptoms - "telling the truth about palliatives and 'looking good' solutions" (110). This exploration of systems thinking abounds in examples and discussion.

Part III discusses each of the other four core disciplines in turn. What follows are some of the most insightful aspects of each of these four, in my opinion.

Personal mastery is rooted in the having a "special sense of purpose that lies behind their visions and goals...they see current reality as an ally not an enemy" (132). These masters of themselves are comfortable with emotional tension - embracing bad news and not falling into comprise or "the path of mediocrity" (142).

Mental models are powerful "because they affect what we see. Two people with different mental models can observe the same vent and describe it differently, because they've looked at different details and made different interpretations" (164). Argyris at MIT leads participants through "reflection in action" - recounting a conflict by describing "what was said, what you were thinking, and what you did not say" (172). These skills of reflection compliment skills of inquiry. Reflection "concern slowing down our own thinking processes so that we can become more aware of how we form our mental models and the ways they influence our actions. Inquiry skills concern how we operate in face-to face interactions with others, especially in dealing with complex and conflictual issues" (175). The key in inquiry lies in separating generalizations from the data that lies underneath. The data can then be inquired into through others' views and interpretations.

Shared visions answer the question "what do we can to create" and provides "the focus and energy for learning" in an organization (192). This contrasts with a strategic plan that "reveal more about today's problems than tomorrow's opportunities" (196, C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel). When a vision is spread, reactions can include (203-204):

Commitment - wants it. will make it happen. creates whatever "laws" (structures) are needed.

Enrollment - wants it. Will do whatever can be done within the "spirit of the law"

Genuine compliance - Sees the benefits of the vision. Does everything expected and more. Follows "the letter of the law." "Good soldier"

Formal compliance - On the whole, sees the benefits of the vision. Does what's expected and no more. "Pretty good soldier"

Grudging compliance - Does not see the benefits of the vision. But, also, does not want to lose job. Does enough of what's expected because he has to, but also lets it be known that he is not really on bard.

Noncompliance: Does not see benefits of vision and will not do what's expected. "I won't do it; you can't make me."

Apathy: Neither for nor against vision. No interest. No energy. "Is it five o'clock' yet?"

A vision is set in three key ideas - answering "what? [vision]" "why? [mission or purpose]" and "how? [cire values]" Critically, visions can lead to a decline in enthusiasm as the gap in reality and vision is revealed. A feedback loop and quality relationships can help overcome this.

Lastly, team learning which is based on moving in alignment "when a group of people function as a whole" (217). This is rooted not in discussion - which Senge claims we seek to win - but in dialogue where we "go beyond any one individual understanding" (223) to "reveal the incoherence in our thought" (224) essentially becoming "observers of their own thinking" (ibid). Dialogue requires suspending assumptions, regarding each other as colleagues, and having a facilitator who holds the context of the dialogue (this is drawn from David Bohm and his The Special Theory of Relativity). The facilitator ensures that we are "not pulled towards discussion and away from dialogue" (229). Dialogue itself contains conflict between different ideas of how to achieve a united vision. And Senge adds that "defensive routines can be come a surprising ally toward building a learning team by providing a signal when learning is not occurring... when we are feeling defensive, seeking to avoid an issue, thinking we need to protect someone else or ourselves - these are tangible signals that can be sued to reestablish a climate of learning" (239). Senge ends this section with learning how to practice team discipline and its connection to systems.

The basic conditions for such a succession include:

1. having all members of the "team" together

2. explaining the ground rules of dialogue

3. enforcing those ground rules so that if anyone finds himself unable to suspend his assumptions, the team acknowledges that it is now discussing not dialoging

4. making possible, indeed encouraging, team members to raise the most difficult, subtle, and conflictual issues essential to the team's work

   
   

   The final section focuses on Reflections from practice - drawing on Senge's work directly with businesses. Some interesting insights include:

   1. Chris Argyris argues that formal communication mechanisms "give employees mechanisms for letting management know what they think without taking any responsibility for problems and their role in doing something about them" (260)

   2. The deep learning cycle has "beliefs and assumptions, established practices, skills and capabilities, networks of relationships, and awareness and sensibilities" (285) It can reinforce the current culture or what is emerging.

   3. Coherent strategies to influence the deep learning cycle have "three elements: guiding ideas; theory, tools, and methods; and innovations in organizational structure" (285)

   4. In order to succeed, strategic thinking needs to be integrated and not driven from to-down or rooted just in training; instead it should be applied to daily work: "reflection that isn't connected to action is what makes people think they don't have time for this" (288)

   5. It can be helpful to have designated practices around ":when we take time to really talk and get to know on another more deeply" (301)

   6. Change leaders limit themselves by (305):

   7. not go[ing] deeply enough into themselves to discover what is truly calling them

   8. not go[ing] deeply enough into the organization to discover what it stands for

   9. "A focus on getting the words right leads to beautiful, even inspiring, vision statements that produce little or no change...visions and other guiding ideas [are] tools for maximizing and focusing energy...judge the ideas by their impact not by how they sound" (328)

   10. The "hallmark of good design is the absence of crisis... Those who aspire to lead out of a desire to control, to gain fame, or simply to be at the center of the action will find little to attract them to the quiet design work of leadership" (328)

   
   

   Relevance to Schools

   A great deal of Senge's work is relevant to businesses. However, the nuggets and idea of systems thinking show a way forward out of the mess of being a reactive organization. In fact, the idea of a learning organization should be most applicable to an organization dedicated to learning. For schools mired in mediocrity due to leadership transitions - a truly aligned team offers a way to overcome changes in leadership or environment.

   
   

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization (Revised and Updated) by Peter M. Senge

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Good For: Leaders and leadership team looking dig deeper into strategic thinking, mental models, and building out systems to address larger issues. An excellent compliment to Jim Collins' Good to Great.

Best nugget: Only mediocre people are always at their best. - Somerset Maugham (142)