The Fifth Discipline

Learning organizations are organizations and systems that foster learning and promote the pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment. Senge states that learning organizations are made possible by the innate human ability and desire to learn and that learning organizations are created through collective learning and a focus on individual and collective improvement (4-5). Senge states that the five disciplines Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision, Team Learning, and Systems Thinking are vital practices in learning organizations. These disciplines rely on each other to make the learning organization its most efficient and beneficial self.

Mental Models are the ideas, assumptions, and theories people create in their minds. Senge states, “Mental models can be simple generalizations such as ‘people are untrustworthy,’ or they can be complex theories” (164). These assumptions and theories effect people’s perceptions, and because many people have subtle Mental Models that often go unrecognized and, thus, unchallenged, reflection is essential to creating accurate Mental Models. Managers and leaders must admit their assumptions and hold them up to scrutiny in order to adjust their perceptions and connect them to reality. Doing this and creating more accurate, better Mental Models can help ensure a company’s survival and success, as Senge argues this helped Shell in the 1970s.

“Metanoia” is a Greek word meaning a shift of mind (13). Senge explains that the word’s definition has gone through an evolution, with the Greeks understanding it as a “fundamental shift or change” and “transcendence,” the early Gnostics using it as a term meaning “awakening shared intuition and direct knowing of the highest, God,” and Catholics translating the word to the English word “repent,” a word that means to change one’s mind and path (13). Senge connects the word with learning, arguing that learning requires one to change and adjust one’s mind as they pursue more knowledge. Contrary to many people’s perceptions, learning is an action that a person actively engages in rather than a passive one, according to Senge. He states that learning causes people to “re-create” themselves, and evolve into different, better people (13). Through this, “metanoia” turns learning into a lifelong transformation.

Personal Mastery is the discipline that centers on “personal growth and learning” (131). It involves the seeking of enlightenment and self-improvement and allows a person to become the best version of themselves. It is a lifelong process that requires one to remain eager to learn and grow as they live life. Personal Mastery also involves dedicating one’s self to “creative work” and kindness and generosity toward others (131). The discipline also requires one to have a personal vision and a connection to the truth, allowing them to remain realistic while working to make their vision a reality. Personal Mastery, while an individual process, is not meant to be a purely self-interested discipline, but rather a path of enlightenment that helps a person grow so they can better help others.

The Prevailing System of Management is the popular system of thinking and operating that most management systems in the Western world. This system is highly individualistic, reward-centered, linear in thinking, and focused on image and profit. Senge and W. Edwards Deming criticize this system throughout the book, asserting that it is nonsystemic and short-sighted. In the Introduction to The Revised Edition, Deming says that this system “has destroyed our people,” and Senge blames the system for worsening problems such as global warming, climate change, income inequality, and the international drug trade (xii, xv). The Prevailing System of Management’s linear, self-focused lens limits organizations’ ability to learn and communicate properly with each other and makes them struggle to see other parts of the organizations’ and people’s roles in the system. Senge wishes to promote The Learning Organization to reduce the damage caused by this system.

Shared Vision is the collective sharing of a goal within a group, including an organization. Senge states that Shared Visions begin as personal visions but as people share their personal visions with others and people adopt them as well, they become Shared Visions. These Shared Visions give power to an organization and movement and allow them to unite with a common purpose. Organizations must encourage “enrollment” and “commitment” to grow and spread their visions and listen to people within the organization (202-03). Senge also argues that Shared Visions require organizations to maintain a connection and “a larger purpose” (214). This will prevent conflicts and demoralization that can destroy an organization’s Shared Vision.

Systems archetypes are defined by Senge as “certain patterns of structure” and “management problems” that “recur again and again” (93). He connects the idea of literary archetypes to these common management situations to show that they happen frequently (93). These archetypes present challenges for managers and leaders in organizations that they must apply the disciplines to solve efficiently to avoid severe consequences and reduce damage. The archetypes Senge explores in detail are Limits to Growth, which signals a stop to reinforcing feedback that jeopardizes an organization, and Shifting the Burden, in which organizations focus on treating the symptom of a problem rather than addressing the cause, which only makes the fundamental problem more likely to cause worse problems in the future. Systems archetypes are serious problems that require organizations to incorporate the learning disciplines and a proper understanding of systems to solve.

Systems Thinking is the understanding that the world is connected through a system that binds each part to each other. Senge designates Systems Thinking as the fifth discipline because it “integrates the disciplines, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice” and “keeps them from being separate gimmicks or the latest organization change fads” (12). Its focus on the system establishes the disciplines’ connection to each other and Systems Thinking’s connection to the other disciplines (12). Systems Thinking allows managers in organizations to see the whole of the system and understand the complexities of the organization, as well as of their colleagues and themselves. Systems Thinking also reminds people that they are a part of a system that is much bigger than them. Systems Thinking, supplemented by the other disciplines, uses them to create better leaders, teams, and ideas with systemic understanding. The fifth discipline, thus, allows organizations to truly learn and thrive.