Organizational Learning
The Five Disciplines for Building the Learning Organizations
The Five Disciplines of organizational learning as published in The Dance of Change The challenges to sustaining momentum in a learning organization are presented below. Each of the following five disciplines represents a lifelong body of study and practice for individuals and teams in organizations.
Sign Up for SoL Mailing List and Download "Leading Learning Organizations" by Peter Senge
1. Personal Mastery
This discipline of aspiration involves formulating a coherent picture of the results people most desire to gain as individuals (the personal vision), alongside a realistic assessment of the current state of their lives today (the current reality). Learning to cultivate the tension between vision and reality, represented in this icon by the rubber band, can expand people's capacity to make better choices, and to achieve more of the results that they have chosen.Read more about Personal Mastery?Personal Mastery | Drawing Forth Personal Vision
2. Mental Models
This discipline of reflection and inquiry skills is focused around developing awareness of the attitudes and perceptions that influence thought and interaction. By continually reflecting upon, talking about, and reconsidering these internal pictures of the world, people can gain more capability in governing their actions and decisions. The icon here portrays one of the more powerful principles of this discipline, the ladder of inference depicting how people leap instantly to counterproductive conclusions and assumptions.Read more about Mental Models?Left-Hand Column | Ladder of Inference | Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy
3. Shared Vision
This collective discipline establishes a focus on mutual purpose. People learn to nourish a sense of commitment in a group or organization by developing shared images of the future they seek to create (symbolized by the eye), and the principles and guiding practices by which they hope to get there.
4. Team Learning
This is a discipline of group interaction. Through techniques like dialogue and skillful discussion, teams transform their collective thinking, learning to mobilize their energies and ability greater than the sum of individual members' talents. The icon symbolizes the natural alignment of a learning-oriented team as the flight of a flock of birds.Learn more about Team Learning?Introduction to Dialogue: The Emergence of Shared MeaningListening and Dialogue
5. Systems Thinking
In this discipline, people learn to better understand interdependency and change, and thereby to deal more effectively with the forces that shape the consequences of our actions. Systems thinking is based upon a growing body of theory about the behavior of feedback and complexity-the innate tendencies of a system that lead to growth or stability over time. Tools and techniques such as systems archetypes and various types of learning labs and simulations help people see how to change systems more effectively, and how to act more in tune with the larger processes of the natural and economic world. The circle in this icon represents the fundamental building block of all systems: the circular feedback loop underlying all growing and limiting processes in nature.Learn more about Systems Thinking?Systems Thinking by Peter SengeThe Language of Systems Thinking: "Links" and "Loops"
Senge, P. M., Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross, George Roth, Bryan Smith, and Art Kleiner (1999). The Dance of Change: The challenges of sustaining momentum in learning organizations. New York, Currency/Doubleday. Page 32
The Five Disciplines for Building the Learning Organizations
The Five Disciplines of organizational learning as published in The Dance of Change The challenges to sustaining momentum in a learning organization are presented below. Each of the following five disciplines represents a lifelong body of study and practice for individuals and teams in organizations.
Sign Up for SoL Mailing List and Download "Leading Learning Organizations" by Peter Senge
1. Personal Mastery
This discipline of aspiration involves formulating a coherent picture of the results people most desire to gain as individuals (the personal vision), alongside a realistic assessment of the current state of their lives today (the current reality). Learning to cultivate the tension between vision and reality, represented in this icon by the rubber band, can expand people's capacity to make better choices, and to achieve more of the results that they have chosen.Read more about Personal Mastery?Personal Mastery | Drawing Forth Personal Vision
2. Mental Models
This discipline of reflection and inquiry skills is focused around developing awareness of the attitudes and perceptions that influence thought and interaction. By continually reflecting upon, talking about, and reconsidering these internal pictures of the world, people can gain more capability in governing their actions and decisions. The icon here portrays one of the more powerful principles of this discipline, the ladder of inference depicting how people leap instantly to counterproductive conclusions and assumptions.Read more about Mental Models?Left-Hand Column | Ladder of Inference | Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy
3. Shared Vision
This collective discipline establishes a focus on mutual purpose. People learn to nourish a sense of commitment in a group or organization by developing shared images of the future they seek to create (symbolized by the eye), and the principles and guiding practices by which they hope to get there.
4. Team Learning
This is a discipline of group interaction. Through techniques like dialogue and skillful discussion, teams transform their collective thinking, learning to mobilize their energies and ability greater than the sum of individual members' talents. The icon symbolizes the natural alignment of a learning-oriented team as the flight of a flock of birds.Learn more about Team Learning?Introduction to Dialogue: The Emergence of Shared MeaningListening and Dialogue
5. Systems Thinking
In this discipline, people learn to better understand interdependency and change, and thereby to deal more effectively with the forces that shape the consequences of our actions. Systems thinking is based upon a growing body of theory about the behavior of feedback and complexity-the innate tendencies of a system that lead to growth or stability over time. Tools and techniques such as systems archetypes and various types of learning labs and simulations help people see how to change systems more effectively, and how to act more in tune with the larger processes of the natural and economic world. The circle in this icon represents the fundamental building block of all systems: the circular feedback loop underlying all growing and limiting processes in nature.Learn more about Systems Thinking?Systems Thinking by Peter SengeThe Language of Systems Thinking: "Links" and "Loops"
Senge, P. M., Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross, George Roth, Bryan Smith, and Art Kleiner (1999). The Dance of Change: The challenges of sustaining momentum in learning organizations. New York, Currency/Doubleday. Page 32
