Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge - Excerpts

NOTES - FIFTH DESCIPLE BY PETER SENGE 

" The real work, which he ( Dr Edwards Deming )  simply called the “transformation of the prevailing system of management,” lay beyond the aims of  managers seeking only short-term performance improvements. This transformation, he believed, required “profound knowledge” largely untapped in contemporary institutions.  ( page 7 - 19 Nov 2018 Mon ) 

" The five disciplines represent approaches (theories and methods) for developing three core learning capabilities: fostering aspiration, developing reflective conversation, and understanding complexity." ( Page 7 ) 

" From a very early age, we are taught to break apart problems, to fragment the world. This apparently makes complex tasks and Subjects more manageable, but we pay a hidden, enormous price. We can no longer see the consequences of our actions; we lose our intrinsic sense of connection to a larger whole. When we then try to “see the big picture,” we try to reassemble the fragments in our minds, to list and organize all the pieces. But, as physicist David Bohm says, the task is futile—similar to trying to reassemble the fragments of a broken mirror to see a true reflection. Thus, after a while we give up trying to see the whole altogether. ( 15) 

" As the world becomes more interconnected and business becomes more complex and dynamic, work must become more “learningful.” It is no longer sufficient to have one person learning for the organization, a Ford or a Sloan or a Watson or a Gates. It’s just not possible any longer to figure it out from the top, and have everyone else following the orders of the “grand strategist.” The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in an organization.  ( P 15 ) 

For an " invention " to mature into an " innovation " , takes a lot of time. Sometimes, it takes decades. Let us look at one example ! 
Aircrafts . 
On a cold, clear morning in December 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the fragile aircraft of Wilbur and Orville Wright proved that powered flight was possible. Thus was the airplane invented; but it would take more than thirty years before commercial aviation could serve the general public.

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 (a) it can be replicated reliably , (b) on a meaningful SCALE , and (c)  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. ( p 18 ) 

30 years is the typical time period for incubating basic innovations . 

" 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. As such, it is an essential cornerstone of the learning organization—the learning organization’s spiritual foundation. An organization’s commitment to and capacity for learning can be no greater than that of its
members. The roots of this discipline lie in both Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, and in secular traditions as well. ( 19)

" “By the time they are 30, a few are on the fast track and the rest ‘put in their time’ to do what matters to them on the weekend. They lose the commitment, the sense of mission, and the excitement with which they started their careers. We get damn little of their energy and almost none of their spirit.” ( p 20 ) 

The discipline of working with mental models starts with turning the mirror inward; learning to unearth our internal pictures of the world, to bring them to the surface and hold them rigorously to scrutiny. It also includes the ability to carry on “learningful” conversations that balance inquiry and advocacy, where people expose their own thinking effectively and make that thinking open to the influence of others. ( P 21 ) 

If a learning organization were an engineering innovation, such as the airplane or the personal computer, the components would be
called “technologies.” For an innovation in human behavior, the components need to be seen as disciplines. By “discipline,” I do not
mean an “enforced order” or “means of punishment,” but a body of theory and technique that must be studied and mastered to be put
into practice. ( P 22 ) 

" This is why systems thinking is the fifth discipline. It is the discipline that integrates the disciplines, fusing them into a coherent
body of theory and practice. It keeps them from being separate gimmicks or the latest organization change fads. Without a systemic
orientation, there is no motivation to look at how the disciplines interrelate. By enhancing each of the other disciplines, it continually
reminds us that the whole can exceed the sum of its parts.  " ( P 25 ) 

Seven Learning Disabilities . First , " I am my position " ( P 32 ) 

" Many years ago, managers from a Detroit auto maker told me of Stripping down a Japanese import to understand why the Japanese
were able to achieve extraordinary precision and reliability at lower cost on a particular assembly process. 

They found the same standard type of bolt used three times on the engine block. Each time it mounted a different type of component. On the American car, the same assembly required three different bolts, which required three different wrenches and three different inventories of bolts—making the car much slower and more costly to assemble. 

Why did the Americans use three separate bolts? Because the design organization in Detroit had three groups of engineers, each responsible for “their”component only. The Japanese had one designer responsible for the entire engine mounting, and probably much more. The irony is that each of the three groups of American engineers considered their work successful because their bolt and assembly worked just fine.

When people in organizations focus only on their position, they have little sense of responsibility for the results produced when all
positions interact. Moreover, when results are disappointing, it can be very difficult to know why. All you can do is assume that “someone screwed up.” ( P 34 ) 

" All too often, proactiveness is reactiveness in disguise. Whether in business or politics, if we simply become more aggressive fighting the “enemy out there,” we are reacting—regardless of what we call it.
True proactiveness comes from seeing how we contribute to our own problems. It is a product of our way of thinking, not our emotional state. ( P 36)

" We each have a “learning horizon,” a breadth of vision in time and space within which we assess our effectiveness. When our actions have consequences beyond our learning horizon, it becomes impossible to learn from direct experience. " ( P 38)

The reason that structural explanations are so important is that only they address the underlying causes of behavior at a level at which
patterns of behavior can be changed. Structure produces behavior, and changing underlying structures can produce different patterns of behavior. In this sense, structural explanations are inherently generative. ( P 68 )

" Generative learning cannot be sustained in an organization where event thinking predominates. It requires a conceptual framework of “structural” or systemic thinking, the ability to discover structural causes of behavior. ( P 68 ) 

Point to ponder : " Today’s problems come from yesterday’s “solutions.” ( First Law of fifth discipline ) 
Second Law of Fifth Discipline : " 2. The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back. 
3rd Law : Behavior grows better before it grows worse.
4 th Law : The easy way out usually leads back in.
5 th Law : The cure can be worse than the disease.
6 th Law : Faster is slower . 
7 th Law : Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space.
8 th Law : Small changes can produce big results—but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.
9 th Law : You can have your cake and eat it too—but not at once.
10 th Law : Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small elephants.
11 th Law: There is no blame . 


" For systems thinking also shows that small, well-focused actions can sometimes produce significant, enduring improvements, if they’re in the right place. Systems thinkers refer to this principle as “leverage.” ( P 78)

" There are no simple rules for finding high-leverage changes, but there are ways of thinking that make it more likely. Learning to see
underlying structures rather than events is a starting point ( P 79)

When the same action has dramatically different effects in the short run and the long, there is dynamic complexity. ( P 86) 

Detailed Complexity Versus Dynamic Complexity . 
  Following a complex set of instructions to assemble a machine involves detail complexity, as does taking inventory in a discount
retail store. But none of these situations is especially complex dynamically.

When the same action has dramatically different effects in the short run and the long, there is dynamic complexity. When an action has
one set of consequences locally and a very different set of consequences in another part of the system, there is dynamic
complexity. When obvious interventions produce nonobvious consequences, there is dynamic complexity. ( P 86 ) 

" The real leverage in most management situations lies in understanding dynamic complexity, not detail complexity. " ( P 86)

" At a deep level, there is no difference between blame and guilt, for both spring from linear perceptions. From the linear view, we are
always looking for someone or something that must be responsible . ( P 93) 

" children’s jingle illustrates the process. First there is just one lily pad in a corner of a pond. But every day the number of lily pads doubles. It takes thirty days to fill the pond, but for the first twenty-eight days, no one even notices. Suddenly, on the twenty-ninth day, the pond is half full of lily pads and the villagers become concerned. But by this time there is little that can be done. The next day their worst fears come true. 

That’s why environmental dangers are so worrisome, especially those that follow reinforcing patterns. By the time the problem is noticed, it may be too late. Extinctions of species often follow patterns of slow, gradually accelerating decline over long time periods, then rapid collapse. So do extinctions of corporations.

But pure accelerating growth or decline rarely continues unchecked in nature, because reinforcing processes rarely occur in isolation. Eventually, limits are encountered—which can slow growth, stop it, divert it, or even reverse it. Even the lily pads stop growing when the limit of the pond’s perimeter is encountered. These limits are one form of balancing feedback, which, after reinforcing processes, is the  second basic element of systems thinking.  ( P 98 ) 

In general, balancing loops are more difficult to see than reinforcing loops because it often looks like nothing is happening. The feeling, as Lewis Carroll’s Queen of Hearts put it, of needing “all the running you can do to keep in the same place,” is a clue that a balancing loop may exist nearby. ( P 101 ) 

" the resistance is a response by the system, trying to maintain an implicit system goal. Until this goal is recognized, the change effort is doomed to failure. So long as the leader continues to be the model, his work habits will set the norm. Either he must change his habits, or establish new and different models " ( P 101 ) 

" The systems viewpoint is generally oriented toward the long-term view. That’s why delays and feedback loops are so important . " ( P 105) 

"  Structures of which we are unaware hold us prisoner. Conversely, learning to see the structures within which 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 107)
Start from page 108 . 

" But there is another way to deal with limits to growth situations. In each of them, leverage lies in the balancing loop—not the reinforcing loop. To change the behavior of the system, you must identify and change the limiting factor. " ( p 115)

Start from page 128

" seeing how reliance on symptomatic solutions can reinforce further reliance. The leverage will always involve strengthening the bottom circle, and/or weakening the top circle. " ( P 129) 

" it is vital to hold to critical performance standards “through thick and thin,” and to do whatever it takes to meet those standards. The standards that are most important are those that matter the most to the customer " ( P 138)

Start from page 140 . 

" Organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning. But without it no organizational learning occurs. " ( P 144 ) 

" ( Personal Mastery ) requires spiritual growth. It means approaching one’s life as a creative work, living life from a creative as opposed to reactive viewpoint. ( P 146 ) 

" People with a high level of personal mastery live in a continual learning mode. They never “arrive.” Sometimes, language, such as the term “personal mastery,” creates a misleading sense of definiteness, of black and white. But personal mastery is not something you possess. It is a process. It is a lifelong discipline. People with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence, their growth areas. And they are deeply self-confident. Paradoxical? Only for those who do not see that “the journey is the reward.” ( p 147 )

" Scratch the surface of most cynics and you find a frustrated idealist ! " ( P 151)

Start from 154. 

" The  gap between  our vision ( Goal )   and our current reality is also a source of energy for us !  If there was no gap,  there would be no need for any action to move toward the vision. Indeed, the gap is the source of creative energy. We call this gap creative tension. ( P 156) 

" The principle of creative tension is the central principle of personal mastery, integrating all elements of the discipline." ( 156)
Start from 157

" the more we abhor what is, the more “motivated” we are to change. “Things must get bad enough, or people will not change in any fundamental way.” 
This leads to the mistaken belief that fundamental change requires a threat to survival, a “burning platform” in the words of some. This crisis theory of change is remarkably widespread. Yet, it is also a 'dangerous oversimplification." ( 160)

" human beings are more complex than we often assume. We both fear and seek change. Or, as one seasoned organization change consultant once put it, “People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.” ( 161)

" “The truly creative person knows that all creating is achieved through working with constraints. Without constraints there is no creating.” ( 161) 
Start from 173

( Fifth Discipline - Spiritual Dimension - very Jiddu Krishnamurti like ) 

PERSONAL MASTERY AND THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE
" As individuals practice the discipline of personal mastery, several changes gradually take place within them. Many of these are quite
subtle and often go unnoticed. In addition to clarifying the structures that characterize personal mastery as a discipline (such as creative tension, emotional tension, and structural conflict), the systems perspective also illuminates subtler aspects of personal mastery— especially: integrating reason and intuition; continually seeing more of our connectedness to the world; compassion; and commitment to the whole. " ( P 174)
Blind man and cripple man story . Sufi story . P 174 . 
Start from 178 

" Many of the practices most conducive to developing one’s own personal mastery—developing a more systemic worldview, learning
how to reflect on tacit assumptions, expressing one’s vision and listening to others’ visions, and joint inquiry into different people’s
views of current reality—are embedded in the disciplines for building learning organizations. ( 181)

"  that organizations are by their nature “coercive systems.” " - Edgard Schein ( 181)

" Because we remain unaware of our mental models ( beliefs ) , our convictions  remain unexamined. Because they are unexamined, our beliefs  remain unchanged. As the world changes, the gap widens between our convictions  and  reality, leading to increasingly counterproductive actions. " ( 185) 

From page 193.
From 197
From page 200

" One indicator of a team in trouble is when in a several hour meeting there are few, if any, questions. This may seem amazing but I have seen meetings that went for three hours without a single question being asked! ( 204) 

From page 208

" Committment to Truth takes an understanding that we may never know the whole truth !  It requires an open mind in quest " ( P 208 )

" people can live very well with the situation where they make their case and yet another view is implemented, so long as the learning
process is open and everyone acts with integrity  ! " ( P 208)

" When you look carefully you find that most Corporate & Leadership  “visions”- they  are one person’s (or one group’s) vision imposed on an organization. Such visions, at best, command compliance—not commitment. A shared vision is a vision that many people are truly committed to, because it reflects their own personal vision. "  ( 213 ) 

" Many shared visions are extrinsic ; yet, a goal limited to defeating an opponent is transitory.
 Once the vision is achieved, it can easily migrate into a defensive posture of “protecting what we have, of not losing our number-one position.” Such defensivegoals rarely call forth the creativity and excitement of building something new. 
A shared vision, especially one that is intrinsic, uplifts people’s aspirations. Work becomes part of pursuing life's larger goals " 
 ( 214 ) 
Start from 215
From 217
From 225

" 90 percent of the time, what passes for commitment is compliance. " ( 225)

POSSIBLE ATTITUDES TOWARD A VISION
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 board.
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?”

Page 229 . Guidelines for enrollment and committment . 
From 231

" Jay Forrester once remarked that the hallmark of a great organization is “how quickly bad news travels upward.” IBM’s capacity to recognize and learn from its mistakes proved pivotal during this period. " ( 233)

From 239

p242
" Within organizations, team learning has three critical dimensions. First, there is the need to think insightfully about complex issues.
From 251

" Dialogue is playful; it requires the willingness to play with new ideas, to examine them and test them. " ( 252)
From 258

" “confronter” has taken no responsibility for the situation. It always takes two (or more) to dance. If we perceive a defensive routine
operating, it is a good bet that we are part of it. Skillful managers learn to confront defensiveness without producing more
defensiveness. " ( 262)

from 267
From 273
From 275

" Peter Drucker said that “making money for a company is like oxygenfor a person; if you don’t have enough of it you’re out of the game.” In other words, profitability is a performance requirement for all businesses, but it is not a purpose ! 
Extending Drucker’s metaphor, companies who take profit as their PURPOSE  are like people who think life is about breathing. They’re missing something. " ( 286)

" In circle, we are equals, we all have problems and we learn by helping one another.” ( 289)
From 293
From 296 . Impetus 
" Buckminster Fuller used to say that “you cannot change how someone thinks,” but you can give them a tool “the use of
which leads them to think differently.” (  311)
From 315

" In fact, most of the time, things do not turn out as we expect. But the potential value of unexpected developments is rarely tapped. " ( 315)

" Most of the time, things do not turn out as we expect. But the potential value of unexpected developments is rarely tapped ! 
 Instead, when things turn out contrary to our expectations, we go immediately into problemsolving mode and react, or just try harder—without taking the time to see whether this unexpected development is telling us something important about our assumptions. ( 315)

" And you have to make reflection part of the way work is done. One simple method that has found broad application within the SoL
network is “After Action Reviews,” a tool developed by the U.S. Army. " ( 316)
From 323

From 329

" a way of exposing “the real truths about what people valued beyond maintaining the conflicts.” ( 329)

" For many this turned out to be their children. “I discovered that they wanted a future for their children. I went back to my boss
and told him that I was going to hire twenty-two sons and daughters of people in the plant and place them in apprenticeship programs, even though the plant hadn’t met its financial targets " ( 329)
From 334
from 336

" Communities grow from people pursuing questions that have heart and meaning to them,” ( 338)
From 342
From 348
From 352
"It’s fruitless to be the leader in an organization that is poorly designed. ( 352)

CAFE PROCESS - page 353
" Developed by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs, longtime members of the SoL network, the process provides a simple but powerful structure for larger group dialogue.3 It starts by having people sit at small café tables, focused on a common question or topic that has important meaning for them. As people rotate to different tables, these small, intimate conversations begin to get connected to
one another. Over a few hours, people participate in multiple small conversations and simultaneously gain a sense of how the larger
group as a whole is thinking. “The café process helped me a lot,” says Al-Aydh. ( 353)
From 356

" the way we tend to run our businesses based on obsessive focus on what we can measure, while we all know very well that much of what matters cannot be measured.7 That was a  fascinating conversation. " ( 362)

From 366

" Change Leaders often forget to ask a powerful question: “What do we seek to conserve?” 
Change naturally induces fear in us all: fear of the unknown, of failure, of not being needed in a new order of things.
When we obsessively focus only on what needs to be changed, and not on what we intend to conserve, we reinforce these fears. But when we can clarify what we intend to conserve, some of this fear can be released. When leaders consciously apply this principle, theyusually discover that people seek to conserve identity and relationships  . ( 368 ) 

 There are two fundamental aspects to seeing systems: seeing patterns of interdependency and seeing into the future. Seeing into the
future starts with knowing how to interpret signs that are present today but go unrecognized by those without a systems perspective.
(376)
From 381

"  SYSTEMS WORLD-VIEW 
" Herein lies a secret of the systems worldview. The system is not only out there, it is in here. We are the seed carriers of the whole in
the sense that we carry the mental models that pervade the larger system. We are all actors in the global energy system, the global food
system, and the global industrialization process. We can either think and act in ways that reinforce the system as it currently operates, or think and act in ways that lead in different directions. Because the systems that shape our lives manifest themselves at multiple levels, we can work at multiple levels.
This does not mean that any one of us as individuals, or any one organization, can unilaterally shift these larger systems overnight. 
Yet, the global energy system is enacted by humans and human institutions. It is not based on the laws of physics. Alternative systems
can also be enacted. " ( 382)
From 382

ON SUSTAINABILITY 
 Buckminster Fuller used to be fond of saying that we must learn to operate our societies on our “ENERGY INCOME ,” the steady energy from the sun, and NOT our “ENERGY CAPITAL ,” deposits in the earth’s crust formed from life the sun’s light nurtured millions of years ago. 
Creating such an energy system that can meet the needs of modern society will require many new technologies, one of which will probably be a new generation of fuel cells. By using hydrogen and oxygen as inputs, fuel cells generate electricity through an electrochemical reaction, with heat and water as the only by-products. ( 383)
From 387
 “[To get started,] you don’t have to have the answers for everything that needs to be done to solve the problem. In fact, if you did have all the answers, you might not have the best answer.”
From 391

About the future of the Earth and Ecology " I will never forget hearing a 12- year-old girl in one of these sessions say very matter-of-factly to a forty-five-year-old executive, “We feel like you drank your juice and then you drank ours.” " ( 395)

" The whole private-sector system operate in a way that often “privatizes” profits and “socializes” costs like deteriorating
environmental and social capital. " ( 397) 

" Commonly accepted definition for learning is is that - Learning is  a process of enhancing learners’  capacity, individually and collectively, to produce results they truly want to produce. 
This definition has  two crucial features  (1) the building of capacity for effective action, as opposed to intellectual understanding only; and (2) the fact that this capacity builds over time, often over considerable time. ( 398)
From 403
" Mwalimu Musheshe, started the Uganda Rural Development and Training project (URDT) in the early 1980s . 
 URDT started theground projects like digging better wells and building more secure granaries. 
“Most of all we had to help people shed their inherited sense of fatalism,” says Musheshe. 
“The attitude that we could do nothing about our future was in fact our biggest obstacle.”
 Today the area where they have concentrated their efforts is one of the most prosperous rural regions of the country, and URDT is starting the first women’s university in Uganda so that women have opportunities for leadership on a larger scale because they have been limited by the lack of higher education. ( 404)
From 405

" “I know we are starting to move to a deeper and more productive level of conversation when I notice people being less inclined to treat their opinions as facts,” says BP’s Vivienne Cox. “They become less strident.  They become less certain about things. They start to have a sense of humor. They lighten up. Even though we may be discussing serious subjects, we become a bit less serious, more playful and exploratory. That’s when I know a sense of real inquiry is developing.” ( 408)

" Marianne Knuth’s reflections on how Kufunda Village works. “We bring together community organizers from across Zimbabwe regularly to learn from each other; and to become more conscious of unconscious assumptions (both inherited and cultural) that may hold them back and how they can work with those. But, we can only do this by being likewise open ourselves, knowing that we do not have the answers, that we do not know what they must do to realize their dreams.” ( 409) 

" When leaders at any level and in any setting move through these three openings  ( Mind, Heart & Will) , there are few limits to what is possible. 
“If you can achieve real innocence in what you do,” says Saillant, “become truly insignificant in the sense that you’re not trying to lay claim to it for yourself or trying to be recognized for the outcome—and that’s very tough to do—gifts arrive ! 
 They may take the form of influence, of strength, of will, of a sense of purpose, of energy, or just all sorts of things happening that aid the cause. 
When people can find that inside themselves, when they can get connected to -  what we all kind of sense is there, when they can get to that light, it’s one of the greatest gifts. It’s the place where miracles come from.” ( 410) 

" I cannot read these words of Roger Saillant’s or Marianne Knuth’s without being deeply moved. Without doubt, the thing I struggle most to communicate is the factual knowledge of what is possible when we open ourselves in these ways. I have seen so many miracles— situations with impossible problems that were somehow resolved. I have seen so many people grow into who they truly are and then rise up to face the next difficult problem, lighter and more joyful. And through the journey, they grow closer, to themselves, to one another, and to life. " ( 411) 
From 416
" For example, “structure influences behavior” is a central principle underlying systems thinking, as is “policy resistance,” the tendency of complex systems to resist efforts to change their behavior. ( 417)

" systems thinking leads to experiencing more and more of the interconnectedness of life and to seeing wholes rather than parts. Whenever there are problems, in a family or in an organization, a master of systems thinking automatically sees them as arising from underlying structures rather than from individual mistakes or ill will. ( 418)

From 428

432
443
450

" reduced threat in talking about sensitive issues is exactly what happens in “dialogue sessions,” where the ground rules are such that concern for “right” or “wrong” insights quickly disappears. As dialogue sessions become a regular part of how teams work 
together, such threats perceived by team members may well decline generally. ' ( 450)