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The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization
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Sales rank 22,365
Customers rating (based on 145 reviews)
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Finally in paperback, Senge's national bestseller The Fifth Discipline, which has turned the principles of the learning organization into a movement of snowballing size and strength. The ability to respond to change is the crucial issue of the '90s, but management tools such as "reengineering" and "total quality" simply treat the symptoms. Adopted by Ford, AT&T, and others, here is a cure for the disease Senge calls "learning disabilities."
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| Publisher | Doubleday Business | | Release date | 10/1994 | | Availability | | | Edition | Paperback |
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 Orgainisational Learning Culture
I have never been so interested or inspired by an organisational theory text. As a social worker the underpinning approaches sit very closely with my learnings and practice approach which is relational and eco-systemic.
My review of The Fifth Descipline by Peter Senge
Peter Senge's Fifth Discipline is an outstanding book. It was an eye-opening book on the way we think and the way we should think, systematic thinking. "Systems thinking" is discipline to seeing wholes. It's a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, patterns of change rather than static snapshots, it's a set of general principles distilled in the 20th century benefiting many fields. Helps identify patterns and how to intervene and change for those patterns. An example such as the "Beer Game" really delivers the message of this book and how people and systems interact with one another. Peter Senge calls systems thinking the "5th Discipline" because it ties 4 other components that it are essential in learning systems thinking. The five disciplines help shift thinking from seeing parts to seeing wholes. It helps clarify many things that we face at school, at work, or even it could be applied to our personal lives at home. Helps realize and perform good organizations. It leads the way to transformation from transformers to growers, pursuing what matters to us, people whom caret to advocate the learning organizations. The basics are laid to flourish a single entity to networks and learning organizations. I personally enjoyed reading this book because I learned so much as it opens your eyes and makes you see what is behind the picture and what needs to be done in order to be successful in life.
 Good book but applicability depends on the situation
I was assigned to read this book in my college engineering course and had low expectation due to the fact that it didn't seem to have much relevance. However, after reading the book, I found that many of the concepts are applicable to anyone at any point in their lives. It is however more beneficial to an entire company if all of these concepts are bought in to.
The book entitled the Fifth Disciple goes over five major disciplines that Peter Senge says are apparent in most successful businesses. The fifth discipline, systems thinking, is the discipline that businesses should work towards. System thinking deals with looking at something as a whole, and how the whole sum of parts affects each individual part and not the idea that each individual part affects the whole. This discipline is supported by the four other disciplines, team learning, mental model, personal mastery and shared vision.
I felt that after reading the book, small parts from each section could be applicable in my college career. However, I feel that the overall concept and culture that Senge is trying to convey is better suited for a person in the setting of a business. The reason for this is because then all of his concepts could be worked on with a group of people that are constantly working with each other. I feel that changing a company's culture to this Fifth Discipline thinking would take much time and commitment from a group of people all working towards the same goal, something not usually found while pursuing a college degree.
As for the book readability, I found that Senge bombarded the reader with many different examples so that each discipline could be understood in different situations. It also included many thought provoking quotes such as "Only mediocre people are always at their best."
I would recommend this book to anyone because it gives valuable lessons on how to work as a team and organization successfully. I would, however, say that its potential usefulness would be better suited for a business setting.
Five important discipline
I would recommend this book to most people, especially people who are going to be in a team organization. Two things why I would recommend it are because it teaches us how to be a good team player in a team learning organization and secondly it teaches us how to be better leader in an organization. Senge taught us about the five discipline which is Personal Mastery, Shared vision, Mental Models, Team Learning (I believe this will be the most important discipline among all others), and System Thinking. He told us the difference between dialogue and discussion under Team Learning which will be applied in our lives when we are in an organization. In this book he also tells us the different types of leaders we could all be and we need to work together as a team to be a successful organization. This book surprises me on how my team members and I can work together better by applying most of the skills he taught in this book. This book is easy for people to understand because he uses a lot of examples, such as cold war, filling a glass of water, and beer game. Overall I will rate this book good.
From the view of a student
I was assigned to read this book for a class in college. Reading through it, i found that every page was packed with knowledge and key elements to expanding your view of management practices, and how to look into situations in a way that allows for a more efficient problem solving. I found the book to be rather difficult to read through as to the fact that most of the content builds off theories over my head, however this is not a criticism of Senge, its just my lack of knowledge. I believe that a person that is well versed in these ideas will find this book extremely useful, but for someone like myself just starting out, i believe that books like The Goal, or the Good to Great would be more helpful in getting started on the right foot.
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